> but I found that it is very hard to get something like that off the ground in present day Western Europe.

Yes, agreed for the USA/Taiwan/Japan where we mostly operate. For us it's been understanding and leveraging the alternative resources we have. Like, we have a lot of members, but really only a couple are bringing in customers, despite plenty of members having very good networks.

Is your current a co-op? 200+ sales at 30k a pop seems to be pretty well off the ground!

Effectively, yes, but it is tiny. There is a corporate entity but it just serves to divide the loot between the collaborators.