Software as a service (SaaS) — both a revelation and a revolution — completely disrupted the decades-old software selling paradigm. It turned buying software from an infrequent, high-cost and, for many companies, time-consuming process into a hosted, monthly and predictable cost-per-seat subscription service.
SaaS has essentially become the de facto business model for early-stage startups right on up to global conglomerates. But tech paradigms constantly change, and per-seat subscription-based pricing isn’t a one-size fits all solution.
Enter the next evolution: user-based pricing.
Rather than selling your software as a contract for a set price and time period, you charge only for what your customer actually uses and nothing more. This pricing model doesn’t work for every SaaS scenario. Case in point: no one wants to pay per-use for Google Workspace.
User-based pricing is an increasingly popular way to sell API-based products. Twilio, for example, sells its APIs to other businesses that want to add SMS/telephony capabilities. Other successful SaaS companies with usage-based pricing models include AWS, Datadog, Snowflake and Stripe.
Usage-based pricing offers benefits to both the seller and the customer — but is it the right pricing structure for your startup? And how do you use it to grow when old-school SaaS benchmarks, milestones and metrics used to demonstrate a proven strategy aren’t as useful?
These questions are just two reasons why we invited Kyle Poyar, the operating partner at OpenView Ventures, to share his knowledge and expertise in the session, How to Scale with Usage-based Pricing at TechCrunch Early Stage 2022 on April 14.
Poyar leads OpenView’s growth team, which is responsible for advising portfolio executives on strategies to increase revenue growth and dominate their markets. His specialty? Pricing and packaging strategy — a SaaS company’s most effective, yet overlooked, growth lever.
An expert in product-led growth (PLG), go-to-market strategy, usage-based business models and SaaS benchmarks, Poyar says “usage-based pricing will be the key to successful monetization in the future.”
Choosing the right pricing structure for your SaaS startup is essential for long-term success. Join Kyle Poyar to learn about usage-based pricing, why old SaaS metrics won’t cut it and how to scale without them — and which new metrics matter most for your business.
TC Early Stage sessions provide plenty of time to engage, ask questions and walk away with a deeper, working understanding of topics and skills that are essential to startup success. Reserve your spot and register today before prices increase!
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