Pricing and How to Create Growth at Scale
For some SaaS companies, pricing is an afterthought. Transforming it into a deliberate growth lever, however, is a critical strategic shift.
In this fireside chat, we will speak with Marcos Rivera, founder of Pricing I/O, who specializes in helping SaaS businesses build effective and scalable pricing strategies. We will move beyond theory to discuss the practical frameworks and decisions that directly impact revenue.
The conversation will cover:
- Designing a scalable pricing architecture: The considerations for implementing subscription tiers, usage-based models, or a hybrid approach that aligns with your product's value.
- Identifying the metrics that signal pricing health: How to look beyond top-line revenue to understand expansion, churn, and the long-term sustainability of your model.
- A methodical approach to pricing changes: The process for rolling out new pricing, from communicating value to managing the transition for existing customers.
Marcos brings direct experience from his work with numerous SaaS companies through Pricing I/O. He will share practical insights on establishing pricing as a core component of your business strategy, rather than a one-time setup.
Recoding Summary:
In this session, Marcos Rivera shares how he approaches pricing and packaging for B2B SaaS companies, drawing on two decades of experience leading pricing initiatives across Vista portfolio companies such as Marketo, Ping Identity, and Mindbody. With a background in product management, Marcos emphasizes that pricing should not be treated as a standalone number, but as an extension of the product experience and company strategy.
He frames pricing as an architectural problem: get the structure right first, and only then decide how much to charge.
A framework for pricing architecture: the 5Qs
Marcos walks through his 5Q Framework, which he uses to design pricing systems that scale:
- Why: Clarify the primary business objective driving pricing decisions. This might be increasing market share, improving retention, recovering LTV/CAC, or strengthening competitive moat. Pricing changes without a clear “why” tend to create noise rather than results.
- Who: Define the core customer segment and sub-ICPs. Marcos cautions against designing pricing for “everyone,” which usually leads to bloated plans and weak expansion dynamics.
- What: Decide what customer experience you are actually pricing. This includes not just features, but onboarding, support, integrations, and the intended expansion path as customers grow.
- How much: Only after structure is defined do price points and licensing mechanics come into play.
- Which parts are working: Pricing is not static. Marcos emphasizes the need to measure, test, and iterate over time.
Packaging and tier design principles
Marcos spends much of the session showing how to design plans and tiers that customers can easily understand and naturally grow into.
Marcos discusses the trade-off between simplicity and flexibility. Overly simple pricing can leave meaningful revenue on the table, while too much flexibility increases cognitive load and sales friction.
He explains when good-better-best structures work well, particularly when customers follow a clear maturity or usage trajectory. In these cases, the middle tier should be designed for the core ICP and capture the majority of customers.
A recurring warning is against overstuffing premium plans. When customers pay for features they don’t fully use, perceived value erodes. In markets with widely varying use cases or TAMs, Marcos suggests considering use-case-based tiers or limited à la carte add-ons.
Other practical guidance includes:
- Keeping plan jumps reasonable (often ~2.5×) to avoid customers getting stuck or creating workarounds
- Limiting the number of line items (ideally five or fewer) to reduce cognitive load and resentment
Common pricing mistakes
Marcos highlights several pitfalls he sees repeatedly:
- Overloading plans with features
- Nickel-and-diming customers with too many granular charges
- Letting competitors dictate pricing without understanding internal economics
- Leaving legacy discounts or price constructs in place indefinitely instead of revisiting them deliberately
Assessing pricing health: the VET lens
To evaluate whether pricing is doing its job, Marcos introduces a VET analysis:
- Variability: Large price differences for similar customers, or wide usage differences at the same price point, often signal misalignment.
- Effectiveness (mix): Plan distribution matters. For example, if the majority of customers remain in the entry tier and never expand, that may indicate packaging or value framing issues.
- Time (trend): Tracking average revenue per unit over time is critical. Declining unit economics despite product investment often points to discounting, gaming, or weak packaging.
He also recommends correlation checks between usage metrics and deal size. Weak correlation suggests you may be charging for the wrong thing.
Communicating and executing price changes
A significant portion of the session focuses on how to change pricing without damaging trust.
Marcos stresses the importance of segmentation before making changes, grouping customers by renewal likelihood and sensitivity to the increase. Larger increases (especially 50%+) require careful staging rather than a single “big bang” rollout.
He recommends advance notice (often 60–90 days), thoughtful grandfathering periods where appropriate, and clear messaging that explains both the change and the value behind it. His suggested communication structure highlights new product investment first, states the change clearly, and reinforces the benefits to the customer.
For concessions, Marcos advises preparing a small set of fallback options — such as partial increases, contract extensions, lighter plans, or bundled incentives — to preserve relationships while protecting pricing integrity.
Experiments and rollout strategies
The talk also covers ways to test pricing before full rollout:
- A/B testing for web-driven or PLG motions with sufficient traffic
- Previewing new pricing in selected pipeline deals (“back-pocket tests”) to gauge sales and buyer response
- Rolling changes out to a small portion of the customer base before broader adoption
Special cases: commission-based pricing
Marcos closes with guidance on commission-based and hybrid pricing models. These can work well when attribution is clear and value delivered is directly tied to revenue, but require careful calibration to avoid customer pushback.
- He shares typical commission ranges based on attribution strength and explains when combining a recurring fee with a commission makes sense, and when it creates double-charging concerns.