For a startup company like MotherNature.com, the return side of the ROMI model encompasses the total future stream of contribution margin (product sales minus cost of goods sold) from new customers. Startup companies have a negligible initial customer base, as virtually all customers are new customers. Therefore, the return side of ROMI for MotherNature.com is simply a function of the total stream of gross income. Because MotherNature.com expects customers to return repeatedly to buy a continuing supply of health products, Steinberg is using customer lifetime (CLTV) to compute ROMI.