1.
Blake Bartlett and Kyle Poyar
SaaStr Annual 2018
Mastering
SaaS Pricing
Proprietary and Confidential ©2017 Copyright OpenView Venture Partners. All Rights Reserved.

2.
OV invests in expansion stage
software companies
Our
Portfolio

3.
Partner
blake@ov.vc
• Investments include: Expensify, Calendly, Logikcull, Optimizely and
Glassdoor, among others.
Blake
Bartlett

4.
Senior Director, Market Strategy
kyle@ov.vc
• Partners with portfolio leaders on growth & monetization
• Author of Mastering SaaS Pricing
• Previously with Simon-Kucher – leading pricing strategy consulting firm
Kyle
Poyar

5.
Why does
pricing matter?

6.
Founders who struggle to raise
capital are…
3x More
likely to say they monetized too late
2x More
likely to say they picked the wrong business model
40% More
likely to say their burn rate was too high
Pricing can
make or break
your business
Source: First Round Capital 2017 State of Startups

7.
The only difference between companies that succeed and
fail is that the winners figured out how to make money.
The winners thought deeply through the revenue, price, and
business model.
Steve Ballmer
CEO, Microsoft 2000 - 2014
This thing called ‘price’ is
really, really important.

8.
Profit Impact of Different Growth Levers
3.3%
6.7%
12.7%
Customer Acquisition Retention Pricing & Packaging
Pricing is a Powerful Growth Lever
Source: Price Intelligently study of 512 SaaS companies
4x More Powerful

9.
Do you suck at
pricing?

10.
1111
Top 5
pricing mistakes
1. You’re too cheap
2. You picked the wrong value metric
3. You can’t land new customers
4. You can’t expand existing customers
5. Your pricing is static

11.
You’re too
cheap.
1

12.
Businesses have
low price sensitivity compared to
consumers

13.
’13 ’14 ’15 ‘16
$1,500
$400
$300
$200
$100
$0
Starter Plan
Growth Plan
StatusPage.io Pricing Evolution, 2013 - 2016
Source: Wayback Machine; “3 Steps to Increasing Our Average Revenue Per User by 2.4X” (Nov 27, 2015)

14.
’13 ’14 ’15 ‘16
$1,500
$400
$300
$200
$100
$0
Starter Plan
Growth Plan
Corporate plan
StatusPage.io Pricing Evolution, 2013 - 2016
Source: Wayback Machine; “3 Steps to Increasing Our Average Revenue Per User by 2.4X” (Nov 27, 2015)

15.
’13 ’14 ’15 ‘16
$1,500
$400
$300
$200
$100
$0
Starter Plan
Growth Plan
Corporate plan
Enterprise plan
StatusPage.io Pricing Evolution, 2013 - 2016
Source: Wayback Machine; “3 Steps to Increasing Our Average Revenue Per User by 2.4X” (Nov 27, 2015)

16.
’13 ’14 ’15 ‘16
$1,500
$400
$300
$200
$100
$0
Starter Plan
Growth Plan
Corporate plan
Enterprise plan
From Co-Founder Steve Klein:
• Raised highest price point by 30x
• Grew ARPU by 2.4x
• Minimal impact to conversion &
churn
• Hit $2.5M ARR in 2 years
• Successful acquisition by Atlassian
StatusPage.io Pricing Evolution, 2013 - 2016
Source: Wayback Machine; “3 Steps to Increasing Our Average Revenue Per User by 2.4X” (Nov 27, 2015)

17.
What are your
customers saying?

18.
The price is not material enough to be a
factor in the decision.
It is not even a blip on the radar.
“
”

19.
It’s so cheap now, I don’t see how they
could be making any money.
I am concerned for them.
“
”

20.
2
You picked the
wrong value metric.

21.
The unit that determines what your
customers pay. Examples:
• Users
• Usage
• Company size
22
What is a
value metric?
2222

22.
32%
30%
54%
39%
41%
24%
6%
11%
3%
23%
19%
18%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Infrastructure
Vertical app
Horizontal app
User or seat-based Usage-based Total employees Other
Source: openview.vc/saas-benchmarks-2017
Are seats the right metric for you?

23.
The right value metric can help you
differentiate against competitors and
generate more revenue

24.
Expensify differentiates with ’active user’ pricing

25.
VTS: new value metric increased revenue
Before – Per Building After – Per Square Foot
Problem
One-size-fits-all left money on the table
Solution
Price aligned with customer value

26.
3
You can’t land
new customers.

27.
15
10
7
Slower growth
(<30% YoY)
Medium growth
(30-99% YoY)
Faster growth
(100%+ YoY)
Self-reported CAC payback (Months)
Source: openview.vc/saas-benchmarks-2017
Fastest growers seamlessly land
new customers

28.
0
50
100
150
200
Subscription
PAYG
Jan-14 Jan-15 Jan-16 Jan-17
Sell to your customers the way they
want to buy

29.
How are you
communicating
your pricing?

30.
Let’s look at a bad example

31.
33

32.
Let’s look at a good example

33.
Clearly states their
value proposition

34.
Different messaging
for teams vs.
enterprise

35.
Leverages
psychology by
highlighting the price
when paid annually

36.
Crystal clear about
benefits, not just
features

37.
Puts lingering fears
to rest

38.
4
You can’t expand
existing customers.

39.
82%
84%
89%90%
97%
109%
Slower growth
(<30% YoY)
Medium growth
(30-99% YoY)
Faster growth
(100%+ YoY)
Avg logo retention Avg net $ retention
AnnualRetention
Source: openview.vc/saas-benchmarks-2017
Fastest growers see net negative churn

40.
$-
$2
$4
$6
$8
$10
$12
$14
$16
MRR (2.5% Churn) MRR (1% Churn) MRR (-2.5% Churn)
Illustrative Example
Company with $50k in new
monthly bookings; new bookings
increase by $10k each month
Net negative churn compounds over time
0 6 12 18 24 30 36
Time (Months)
MRR($M)

41.
Value metric & expansion: usage > seats
123% net
retention

42.
Packaging: use features to drive expansion

43.
5
Your pricing is
static.

44.
Pricing should evolve as your
company evolves

45.
Salesforce pricing evolution, 1999 - 2017
’99 ’01 ’03 ’05 ’07 ’09 ’11 ’13 ’15 ’17
$300
$250
$200
$150
$100
$50
$0
Pro
Source: Wayback Machine; Salesforce.com; Salesforce press interviews *Price per user per month

46.
Salesforce pricing evolution, 1999 - 2017
’99 ’01 ’03 ’05 ’07 ’09 ’11 ’13 ’15 ’17
$300
$250
$200
$150
$100
$50
$0
Pro
Enterprise
Unlimited
Source: Wayback Machine; Salesforce.com; Salesforce press interviews *Price per user per month

47.
Salesforce pricing evolution, 1999 - 2017
’99 ’01 ’03 ’05 ’07 ’09 ’11 ’13 ’15 ’17
$300
$250
$200
$150
$100
$50
$0
Pro
Enterprise
Unlimited
• Top price point increased by 6x
• Enterprise is now the most popular plan
• Additional revenue from add-on features
Source: Wayback Machine; Salesforce.com; Salesforce press interviews *Price per user per month

48.
But most people don’t take it seriously
No, 45%
Yes, cursory
research, 48%
Yes, in-depth
research, 8%
No, 64%Yes, 1 round,
15%
Yes, 2+
rounds, 22%
Have you done pricing research? Have you done price testing?
Source: openview.vc/saas-pricing-study

49.
Who should
own pricing?

50.
Who should
own pricing?
Marketing
Finance
Sales
Operations
Product

51.
Who should
own pricing?
Great for positioning and messaging
Already own TOFU & website
Best grasp of product and roadmap
Already doing customer development
May overly focus on features vs. value
Analytical and data-driven
Best handle on costs and profit
Tend to take a cost plus vs. value-based approach
Closest to the customer
Constantly hearing about needs and pain points
May be too close – want too many options
Best grasp of the data
Great at processes and technology
Less customer-focused
Marketing
Product
Finance
Sales
Operations

52.
The single most valuable lesson I’ve learned is that you have
to be ready to constantly iterate on both your pricing and
packaging. Successful companies are those that think of
pricing in the same way they think about product
development – their pricing is in a constant state of
evolution.
Monika Saha
General Manager, Finance Product Line
Zuora
It’s never 100% done.

53.
In Conclusion

54.
SaaS Pricing Takeaways
1. Don’t be cheap
2. The right value metric helps you differentiate & sell more
3. Sell to customers the way they want to buy
4. Usage-based pricing & feature packaging drives net negative churn
5. Experiment and iterate on pricing

55.
See this deck: openview.vc/saastr-2018
Blake Bartlett | blake@ov.vc
Kyle Poyar | kyle@ov.vc
Thank You!
Proprietary and Confidential ©2017 Copyright OpenView Venture Partners. All Rights Reserved.