Pricing
These episodes are about how founders find their price, build their tiers and decide when to raise or lower them. Fabian Silberer (sevDesk) explains good, better, best with an anchor tier and repricing every 12 to 18 months, Gero Decker (Signavio) priced his first deal at 100,000 euros, and Max Wittrock (zeroLabs) tested the 2.29 euro retail price with a Gabor-Granger study.
The guests agree that price determines margin and therefore growth, and that most founders are too hesitant. Gero Decker and Max Wittrock advise starting high because a price is like a tattoo. Marius Meiners (Peec AI), on the other hand, deliberately lowered prices to win many customers first, Sievert Weiss (Amboss) started low at 5 euros a month, and Jeremy Okoth and Hannes Kessel (Splash) put growth before monetisation. Leon Szeli (Presize) took a third route and charged 10 percent of the provably added revenue.
The episodes are useful if you have to price a SaaS product, an app, a consumer brand or a service and want to know which pricing models other founders tested and what came of it.
Start with these episodes
Sarah Emmerich explains how the Business Creator Summit is calculated with dynamic ticket prices from 150 to 300 euros plus sponsorship.
Fabian Silberer lays out sevDesk's pricing: three tiers with an anchor, entry below 10 euros, prepayment as financing and repricing every 12 to 18 months.
Jeremy Okoth and Hannes Kessel show the paywall right when the app opens, test weekly and annual subscriptions and put growth before lifetime value.
Gero Decker charged his first customer 100,000 euros and was praised for being the cheapest solution the customer had ever got.
Max Wittrock explains why a price is like a tattoo and how zeroLabs confirmed its 2.29 euro retail price with a Gabor-Granger test.
Leon Szeli priced Presize not per user but at 10 percent of the provably added revenue, backed by a permanent A/B test.
What you take away from the episodes
- 1
Keep pricing simple and use an anchor tier
At sevDesk, Fabian Silberer went with good, better, best: an entry tier below 10 euros and a deliberately expensive top tier, roughly 9.90, 15.90 and 45.90 euros, so the middle one looks cheap. A plan configurator and five tiers instead of three both failed.
from: From the family farm to a 400 million exit - 2
Revisit your prices regularly
According to Fabian Silberer, sevDesk repriced every 12 to 18 months and fully repackaged its plans every two to three years. Pricing alone delivered 10 to 15 percent growth a year without a single new customer, and churn among existing customers did not change.
from: From the family farm to a 400 million exit - 3
Rather quote a price that is too high
Gero Decker did not know how to price software and followed his intuition to ask for too much rather than too little. For the first customer he chose 100,000 euros; the customer bought without renegotiating and praised the solution to the board as cheap.
from: A billion-euro exit and business lessons - 4
A price is a tattoo
Anyone building an e-commerce company needs margin, says Max Wittrock, because acquiring customers is expensive, so start high. zeroLabs tested 1.69, 1.89 and 2.29 euros with Gabor-Granger, found no price point where demand took off, and stays at 2.29 euros.
from: Why would you leave an eight-figure company after 12 years? - 5
Do not exhaust willingness to pay
Marius Meiners lowered Peec AI's prices with the consultancy Northlane, separated the plans for agencies and brands and dropped seat-based pricing. Migrating existing customers cost 300,000 to 500,000 in ARR; his logic: win a great many customers first, you can still raise prices after two or three years.
from: From zero to a 100M+ valuation in 14 months - 6
Get paid on the outcome
Instead of charging per month or per user, Presize ran a permanent A/B test, says Leon Szeli, and took 10 percent of the provably added revenue. The pitch: a guaranteed tenfold return, and if it does not work it costs nothing; only procurement needed convincing.
from: Acquired by Meta: six months, 30 lawyers, not a word to anyone - 7
Sell perceived value, not hours for money
People do not pay the price, they pay the perceived value, says Matthias Aumann. With his value equation of a dream outcome, reliability, a direct debit signed right in the garden and a quick first wow, he gets flat fees above the industry average in garden maintenance.
from: Why 8 out of 10 German founders fail within 5 years
Quotes from the episodes
„Also mein Kapital ist halt meine Personal Brand und mein Netzwerk. Dadurch habe ich halt viele Möglichkeiten.““My capital is my personal brand and my network. That's what gives me so many opportunities.”
„Du brauchst dieses, wie du sagst, Underpriced Attention und wenn am Anfang dir niemand einen Vogel zeigt für deinen Kanal, dann ist es aber wahrscheinlich nicht ganz so geil.““You need that underpriced attention, as you say, and if nobody thinks you're crazy for your channel at the start, it's probably not that great.”
„Ich sage, wenn man das eins zu eins befolgen würde, würde man es actually schaffen.““I'd say if you followed this one to one, you'd actually make it.”
„… meine einzige Intuition, die ich hatte, war ich rufe lieber einen zu großen Betrag auf als ein zu klein.““My only instinct was: I'd rather name an amount that's too big than one that's too small.”
All 16 episodes on pricing
FAQ
How do I price a SaaS product?
Fabian Silberer recommends three tiers along good, better, best, with an entry below 10 euros and a deliberately expensive top tier as an anchor; the more people have to think about the price, the less often they decide. Gero Decker says to quote too much rather than too little; his first deal was 100,000 euros. Yilmaz Köknar's Superchat starts at 89 euros a month according to the episode.
How often should you raise prices?
At sevDesk, according to Fabian Silberer, there was a repricing every 12 to 18 months and new packaging every two to three years, which brought 10 to 15 percent growth a year without churn rising. He finds most founders too hesitant about price increases. Marius Meiners takes the opposite view: Peec AI lowered prices to win many customers first and plans to raise them after two or three years.
Should you enter the market with a low price?
Max Wittrock says no: a price is like a tattoo, and without margin you cannot afford new customers, so zeroLabs stays at 2.29 euros instead of going on the shelf as a 99 cent price breaker. Sievert Weiss, by contrast, deliberately priced Amboss low at 5 euros a month because the customers were students and peers. Jeremy Okoth and Hannes Kessel accept a falling lifetime value at Splash because they want 100 million users first.
How do you price a service instead of billing hours?
Matthias Aumann never bills time for money; he sells flat fees above the industry average by selling a dream outcome, reliability and a quick first wow moment. Markus Baulig says specialists sell at high prices: time management for dentists is 90 percent the same as for everyone, but allows perhaps 1,000 euros an hour instead of 100. Leon Szeli went further at Presize and charged 10 percent of the provably added revenue.