Alexander Estner

I help early-stage SaaS founders build & execute their Go-to-market foundation to grow from €0 to €1 million ARR 🚀

3 WAYS I CAN HELP YOU 👇
1️⃣ GTM Advisory - Work 1-on-1 with me in bi-weekly GTM sprints
2️⃣ GTM Audit - Get a 360° assessment of your current GTM status quo + custom action plan
3️⃣ GTM Content - Bi-weekly newsletter +  Daily LinkedIn posts + Free GTM Library

P.S. You will find the links to all 3 in the featured section.

Among other things, I help you with:
👉 Creating your early/ideal customer profile (ICP)
👉 Working on positioning, messaging & value proposition 
👉 Choosing the right pricing for your business (pricing model, value metric & packaging)
👉 Implementing the right sales strategy (sales-led vs. product-led)
👉 Mastering 2-3 growth channels to continuously generate new deals/trials
👉 Setting up the right tech stack in sales, marketing & customer success
👉 Building your commercial teams.

Send me a DM on LinkedIn or book a free 15-minute intro call to learn more about my offering.

Startup Consultant for B2B SaaS

As a freelance startup consultant, I help early-stage B2B SaaS Startups quickly grow their business with a powerful Growth Strategy 🚀


I work on both, strategic and operational, levels and help you with the following topics.

► For Founders (Launch to Seed Stage):
- Clarify, validate and stress test your business idea
- Win first paying customers and kickstart growth for your SaaS
- Develop and implement a powerful B2B SaaS Growth strategy
- Find product-market fit and close your first funding (business angels & seed)

► For Startups (Seed to Series A Stage):
- Accelerate your growth to 5M€+ ARR
- Review or implement a powerful B2B SaaS growth strategy
- Optimization of direct & indirect growth channels
- Create a growth team mentality, track the right KPIs, and set OKRs

► For more information:
- check out my website (www.alexestner.com)
- subscribe to my FREE weekly newsletter for founders & early-stage startups (https://startupbusinesstips.substack.com/)

► Interested?
- Send me a DM on Linkedin

Fundraising still costs founders 15–20 hours every week.
I partnered with Notion to drop the AI Fundraising Kit - a free stack to help startup founders raise with clarity and confidence.

After working with 30+ founders over the last 3 years, I kept hearing the same questions:

→ Which investors should we actually talk to?
→ What does a “good” pitch deck really look like?
→ How do we structure a proper data room?
→ How do we track investor conversations without chaos?

All this is covered in the AI Fundraising Kit.

What's inside 👇

1️⃣ Investor Database (10k+ profiles)
--> including 2000+ early-stage VCs, incubators, and accelerators

2️⃣ 50 real pitch decks
--> From YC, a16z, and Sequoia-backed startups

3️⃣ AI agents for fundraising
--> Ready-to-use Notion agent prompts for:
- creating pitch docs
- logging investor emails
- building a data room

4️⃣ Notion Data room template
→ A clean, investor-ready setup you can use instantly

Plus a big Bonus 💰

$50K+ in free AI tools (Notion, v0, Supabase...):
▫️ 1 Year Framer
▫️ $60 in v0 by Vercel (frontend)
▫️ $300 from Supabase (backend)
▫️ Up to 6 months of Notion Business with AI (run your startup)

If you’re fundraising now, or planning to soon, this saves weeks of work.

👉 You can access your AI Fundraising Kit here: https://lnkd.in/e4zYDVCe

(It’s free — and yes, I’d grab it before that changes.)

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Newsletter

Join 4500+ SaaS Leaders and get actionable content in your inbox: https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/saas-gtm-foundation

GTM Foundation

Build your GTM foundation: https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/saas-gtm-foundation

Listen to Podcast

Listen to the podcast episode on the 3 stages to 1€ million ARR: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s6e18-the-3-step-gtm-playbook-to-grow-your-saas-from/id1670431932?i=1000713247114

Sales Deck

Build your sales deck with my free sales deck template: https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/high-converting-sales-deck

Vetted Tools

Vetted Partners

SaaS GTM Guides

https://www.alexestner.com/#Best-SaaS-GTM-Guides

14 actionable CRM tactics

SaaS Homepage

https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/saas-homepage-copywriting-guide

Founder Brand on LinkedIn

https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/founder-led-linkedin-guide

Customer Success into Referrals

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexander-estner_how-moritz-weiss-turned-customer-success-activity-7327573567070420992-DkSk?

GTM Audit

https://alexander-estner.webflow.io/services/gtm-advisory#Pricing-Table

ECP to ICP Guide

https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/analyze-your-icp

SaaS Vetted Tools

👇GTM templates: https://www.alexestner.com/gtm-templates

360 GTM Audit

https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/360-saas-gtm-audit

SaaS Pricing Page Guide

Ultimate SaaS Pricing Page Guide: https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/saas-pricing-page

Nocodefounders Newsletter

Read the full article on: https://nocodefounders.beehiiv.com/p/how-to-build-a-strong-gtm-foundation-0-to-1m-arr

6 founders sharing insights

Hear all 6 founders sharing their tips & mistakes: https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/6-founders-insights

Experts Tips

📌 From 0 to €1M ARR: 17 Expert Tips Every Founder Should Know: https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/17-experts-best-tips

MRRUnlocked Signup

Sign up on mrrunlocked.com to get all tips delivered in your inbox (+ 50+ GTM infographics for free).

LinkedIn Playbook

📌 Get the Founder + Team LinkedIn Playbook for free: https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/founder-linkedin-playbook

6 GTM problems

📌 Full breakdown of the 6 GTM problems that keep repeating: https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/the-6-gtm-problems

Homepage Teardown

📌 Homepage Teardown of 6 Top SaaS/AI companies: https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/homepage-teardowns-what-6-top-saas

Digital Nudging: User Experience positiv beeinflussen

Climate Change, Risks and Challenges

Digital Advertising

The Complete Digital Marketing Course

'Hands-on’ GTM Advisor || I help SaaS founders build & execute their Go-to-market and go from €0 to €1 million ARR with less trial & error || Join 4000+ SaaS leaders & get my free SaaS GTM tactics in your inbox👇

I help early-stage SaaS founders build & execute their Go-to-market and quickly go from €0 to €1 million ARR 🚀

3 WAYS I CAN HELP YOU
1️⃣ GTM advisory - Work with me 1-on-1 in weekly or bi-weekly deep-dive working sessions to build and execute your powerful GTM strategy.
2️⃣ List of 90+ actionable SaaS Growth Tactics and Free SaaS Growth Strategy Worksheet (Links are in the Highlight section).
3️⃣ Free actionable SaaS growth tips: Daily on LinkedIn and bi-weekly in my newsletter (read by 2300+ SaaS leaders)

Bonus: Sponsor my newsletter & reach 2300+ early-stage SaaS founders/leaders/decision makers.

Among other things, I help you with:
- Creating your ideal customer profile (ICP)
- Working on positioning, messaging & value proposition 
- Choosing the right pricing for your business (pricing model, value metric & packaging)
- Implementing the right sales strategy (sales-led vs. product-led)
- Mastering 2-3 growth channels to continuously generate new deals or/and trials
- Setting up the right tech stack in sales, marketing & customer success
- Building your commercial teams.

Send me a DM on Linkedin or book a free 15min virtual coffee to learn more about my offering.

------------
ABOUT ME:

Hi, I'm Alexander Estner - but please just call me Alex.

I'm based in Munich, Germany 🇩🇪 and I've spent my whole career in the startup environment with now more than 10 years of experience in SaaS and marketplaces from being the first commercial employee of a fast-growing SaaS-enabled-marketplace to being a Co-founder of a SaaS startup and now supporting other early-stage founders on their journey from pre-revenue to the first €1 million ARR.

Over the last 2 years, I've helped 25+ SaaS companies grow their business faster with a powerful GTM strategy - as a growth advisor, consultant, or interim manager.

What I care about: 

- Brainstorming new business ideas 💡
- Sustainability, healthy food, and barista coffee ☕.
- Traveling, well-being, and all kinds of sports like skiing, beach volleyball, yoga, and fitness 🧘‍♂️
- Books & podcasts about startups, leadership, personal development, & positive mindset 📚

------------
💡 Currently getting inspired for a new startup

Go-to-market in 2024 is tough.

My best SaaS GTM Guides help you master GTM in 2024.

1️⃣ The Ultimate Ideal Customer Profile Framework
2️⃣ The Ultimate SaaS Messaging Framework
3️⃣ High-converting SaaS Homepage template
4️⃣ The perfect Sales Deck template
5️⃣ The Ultimate SaaS Pricing Guide
6️⃣ The Best Outbound Tech Stack for SaaS
7️⃣ The Ultimate Content Marketing Guide for SaaS

The 7 Best SaaS GTM Guides 2024

The free Workbook helped 3000+ SaaS leaders build their SaaS GTM Strategy.

The Ultimate SaaS GTM Strategy Workbook [Free]

Grow faster from 0€ to 3€ million ARR with 100+ actionable & proven SaaS Growth Tactics (helped 200+ SaaS leaders)

100+ actionable SaaS growth tactics

Get weekly 3 actionable SaaS GTM strategies and tactics to grow your B2B SaaS business from €0 to €1 million ARR 🚀.

MRR Unlocked 🚀 | Alexander Estner | Substack

RevGenius is a group of revenue-generating sales and marketing professionals brought together to learn, share, support, and grow with each other. You can consider us your alt work family!

The Mentoring Club is a pro bono platform where mentors and mentees meet and can schedule mentoring sessions. You can schedule a free mentoring session with me here: https://www.mentoring-club.com/the-mentors/alexander-estner

Notion

Helping SaaS & AI founders build and execute their GTM foundation to grow from €0 to €1 million ARR with less trial and error | ‘Hands-on’ GTM Advisor👇

Tactics are great, but only if you have a strong GTM foundation.

When I work with founders on their way to 1€ million ARR,

we usually start building the foundation.

This includes:

Clarity...

1️⃣ on who you target (ICP)

Focus is key here. You can't afford having 2+ ICPs.

Every segment requires a different motion.

2️⃣ on what your product is and how it's different

This is your positioning anchor.

You can lead with a product category (e.g. CRM tool) or a usecase (sending SMS to clients).

This helps prospets to understand for what they need your product.

Once this is clear, you can add your differentiator (against the dominant status quo).

This might be: niche, unique feature, lite, premium...

3️⃣ on how to communicate this

This is your messaging. Your words need to resonate with your buyer.

Your website, demos, emails, sales decks, case studies all need to be aligned.

They become your core GTM assets that align your ICP, positioning & messaging.

4️⃣ on your GTM motion

Are you self-service / product-led or grow via demos (sales led).

You can't run both in parallel (too early). 

So your market, ICP and pricing defines your GTM motion. 

5️⃣ Pricing

In this phase, pricing is less about 'profit hacking' and more about willigness to pay.

You should treat pricing iterative. Key is to find the right value metric.

Build your pricing tiers (packaging).

The more clarity you have on these, the easier becomes the execution.

This includes choosing the right GTM channels.

👉 Which part needs most of your attention?

📌 P.S. Send me a DM if you want the full GTM foundation guide.

I’ve done 15+ GTM audits across:

different markets
different ACVs
different stages (0€–1M ARR)

The problems repeat.

The 6 repeating GTM problems I see.

1️⃣ ICP is defined, but not enforced

2️⃣ Positioning lacks a clear anchor

3️⃣ Sales demos are product tours

4️⃣ No clearly defined sales process

5️⃣ GTM assets are too generic

6️⃣ Content without strategy

Not because founders don’t work hard.
But because GTM is treated as disconnected tasks.

Not as a system.

👇 Which GTM area feels most fragmented for you right now? 

--- 
📌 Full breakdown of The 6 GTM Problems That Keep Repeating in the latest MRR Unlocked newsletter (link in comments).

No alternative text description for this image

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as GTM Advisor!

I'm deeply impressed what Yanick Frehner Ingmar Feldhoff Ramon Vorich Otto Attila Jonathan V. and the team achieved within a few months.

In November, I did a GTM audit for them.

They were doing already quite good.

But I uncovered a few areas that need their attention.
Since then, they executed crazy fast 🔥 

And now we decided to work together for the next months.

Excited about what the next months will bring together.

Co-Founder & CEO @ Leto GmbH | AI-Powered Automation | Zukunft der Arbeit gestalten

Vertriebsleiter | Leto AI | KI-gestützte Automatisierung für mehr Produktivität & Wachstum

CMO @ Leto AI

AI driven - PHP & Laravel Developer | Fullstack

I believe every B2B SaaS company has its own 'sales process'
So it's not about copying THE one.

But what you need to do is define your 'sales process'.

If you don't know what your sales process looks like,
you can't guide your prospects from first touchpoint to closing.

No need to overengineer too early.

Define:

✅ What is your primary CTA

--> Do you want them to book a call? Or do a free trial?

✅ What happens in the first call?

--> Is is a short discovery call? or already a demo?

✅ What defines a qualified lead?

--> What are your criteria for a MQL and SQL.

✅ When do you open a deal in your CRM?

--> Clear entry criteria

✅ What are the next steps after the call?

--> Do you do a technical deep dive? or a trial phase?

✅ What happens after closed won?

--> How do you handle the onboarding?

✅ How do you work with existing customers?

--> Monitor churn alerts? Identify expansion potential? 

Write down the steps your ICP take. 

👇 How is your sales process?

Over the last few months, I’ve done over 15 GTM audits across various B2B SaaS companies.

Different markets.
Different ACVs.
Different stages (all between 0€ and 1€ million ARR).

Yet the same GTM problems keep showing up.

Not because founders are sloppy.
Not because the product is bad.
Not because they don’t execute fast enough.

But because GTM is treated as a collection of independent activities, not a system.

Which is why many founders feel busy, ship constantly, and still struggle to create momentum.

Here are the 6 GTM mistakes I see over and over again.

👇 What GTM problem do you see?

---
📌 Yesterday, the first mrrunlocked.com newsletter episode went live, where we deep-dived into these 6 GTM problems. Link to the episode is in the comments.

I teamed up with web-design expert Maximilian Fleitmann for a teardown of  6 fast-growing SaaS and AI companies.

We reviewed Attio, Clay, Jimo, Fin AI, Sastrify, and introw.io.

We broke down
✅ what works
⛔ what doesn’t, 
🔥 and what we’d change immediately, 

turning all insights into a practical Figma file with concrete comments you can directly apply to your own homepage.

Comment 'teardown' to get the homepage teardown.

One of those bittersweet solopreneur moments today.

After 12 months of working closely together, my content freelancer Himani Sheth decided to take a full-time role.

And honestly?
I’m very happy for her.
And also... a little sad.

Over the last year, she helped me with:

--> My LinkedIn content

--> The mrrunlocked newsletter episodes

--> Getting sponsors

--> And a lot of behind-the-scenes work that most people never see

What I loved most about our journey:

In September 2024, she just reached out.
No pitch deck. No fancy intro.

She said:

“I’ve learned a lot from your content and would love to work with you.”

I checked her grid.
It impressed me.

We jumped on a few calls, aligned on expectations, and decided it was a good fit.

The rest is history.

This is also a reminder:
👉 Sometimes the best collaborations don’t come from job posts
👉 They come from people who already care about your work

Now, I’m looking for someone who can replace her.

Which, of course, is not really possible 🙂

But if you:

--> Love writing (LinkedIn + long form guides)

--> Care deeply about quality

--> And enjoy working closely with a solopreneur

Feel free to reach out (or tag someone great).

And to Himani:
Thank you for everything and good luck in your next chapter. 
You’ve earned it ❤️

Content marketing for B2B founders and solopreneurs | Influencer Marketing | Ex- VC

We all know competitor comparison pages, but CloudTalk is the only one I saw doing this on their homepage.

In crowded markets, Buyers evaluate different vendors.
You will NOT be the only one they check out.

So this is your chance to add your POV.

If you don't, someone else will do it.

And a very common way to do so is to have dedicated landing pages for competitor comparisons.

Either visible on the website footer.
Or completely hidden.

But I think if you know that buyers anyway compare you against your biggest competitors.

You can add them to your homepage.

I've seen Cloudtalk doing this.

And I think it's smart.

👇 What's your take?

P.S. If you want to learn how to position yourself against your competitors, send me a DM and I'll give you access to my new positioning&messaging framework.

graphical user interface, text, application, email

If you're SaaS/AI founder planning to launch new product pages on your website, we have something for you 👇

Quick reminder.

Your homepage is

❌ NOT a detailed page about how your product works.

❌ NOT a page purely on 1 specific use case or 1 specific feature.

Instead,

✅ That’s the job of product pages

Compared to your homepage, they come with a few benefits:

1️⃣ Homepage visitors find information that matches their specific needs quickly

2️⃣ Sales and support teams share more information about a specific feature in a snackable format

3️⃣ Search engines and LLMs understand the core capabilities of your product and recommend your tool in their answers.

You can have 3 different types of product pages:

1️⃣ Feature pages

2️⃣ Use-case pages

3️⃣ Customer segment pages (Persona/Teams, Company type, Industry pages)

Each of these pages has a slightly different focus.

✅ Feature pages and Use-case pages focus on ‘how it works’.

✅ Persona/Teams, company type, and industry pages focus on ‘Who it’s for and how this type of audience benefits from using the product’.

What are the best product pages you know?

---
P.S. If you want the 'Perfect Product Pages Guide', send me DM.

Everyone says you can't run a sales-led motion with <10k€ ACV

Unless you...

If you're a founder on the way from 0€ to your first 1-3€ million ARR, it can be fine to be sales-led. 

Because ACV alone is not an indicator if your motion is healthy or not.

At the end, you need to look at:

1️⃣ CAC payback period (fully loaded)

How long does it take you to make money (and recover your CACs).

At the early stage, I would say
🟠 Everything below 12 months is acceptable
🟢 Below 6 months is great.

This might look a bit different if you're bootstrapped.

2️⃣ ARR signed per AE

If you set healthy quotas (e.g. 4-6x on OTE), it can be fine to scale with 'more humans' - at least for the first 2-3 reps.

All this, of course, requires an efficient sales motion.

Win rates over 20%.
Sales cycles < 90 days
Mostly inbound-driven demos.

I'm not saying that PLG or sales-assisted PLG is wrong.

I just say that sales-led can still be okay if you're early.

What do you think?

If your GTM isn’t working, this might be why:

You never made a real positioning decision.

No clear:
• ICP
• category
• competitor set

And without that:
→ your content lacks edge
→ your LinkedIn profile is vague
→ your outreach doesn’t convert

Founders often say:
“I don’t want to be boxed in.”

Reality:
You’re already boxed in by indecision.

Positioning is a bet.
Execution is how you validate it.

Take the bet.
Then improve it.

P.S. I'm launching soon my new ICP & Positioning Framework. Want early access? Drop me a DM.

If you already know how to reach your first 1€ million ARR, these slides are NOT for you ⛔

GTM Foundation Infographics

Sometimes the best planning happens away from the laptop.
I unplugged for 2 weeks.
And it gave me absolute clarity on 2026.

I spent unplugged,
in nature, hiking, slowing down, and being fully present with my wife.

No notifications.
No endless tabs.
Just long walks and clear thoughts.

And while I disconnected from work...
I reconnected with direction.

I used that time to plan my 2026.

And one thing became very clear:

I don't want to add more.

But rather less. More focus.

👉 I’m doubling down on GTM Foundations for AI & SaaS founders.

Not hacks.
Not shiny growth tactics.
But the fundamentals that actually compound.

This means a stronger focus on:

--> Defining who your product is really for

--> Sharpening positioning & messaging that cuts through noise

--> Designing a GTM motion that fits your stage

A few things that are coming soon:

--> ICP Framework V2
--> Sales Demo Blueprint
--> Positioning Framework

More on this soon.

👇 What topics should I cover in 2026?

If you're doing product demos for your SaaS/AI, this one is for you.

Most B2B demos fail not because of the product,
but because the structure is weak.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been building something to fix exactly that:

👉 The B2B SaaS Sales Demo Toolbox

It includes:

1️⃣ Demo Structure (1-pager)
A clear, repeatable flow for strong demos:
Intro → Time Check → Agenda → Discovery → Buy-In Summary → Tailored Demo → Recap → Next Steps

2️⃣ Sales Demo Script
Ready-to-use blurbs for every step of the demo
(no more “uhm... so yeah” moments)

3️⃣ Demo Coaching Feedback Template
A simple way to give (or receive) structured, actionable feedback

4️⃣ 2-Minute Demo Video Script
Perfect if you want a short sales/demo video without overthinking it

I’ve already tested this with 10 SaaS & AI founders over the last weeks.

Right now, I’m opening early access:
✅ Free
🔒 In exchange for qualified feedback

Heads-up:
I plan to turn this into a €50+ product soon once it’s polished.

So this is likely the only time it’ll be available for free.

👉 Want early access?
Comment “Demo Toolbox” and I’ll send it over.
,

One of the biggest GTM mistakes I see founders make:

They wait for perfect data before positioning.

But positioning creates the data.

The moment you decide:
• “We help X”
• “With problem Y”
• “Instead of solution Z”

Suddenly:
→ lead lists get easier
→ your website writes itself
→ content ideas appear
→ competitor research makes sense

Yes, it’s a bet.
Yes, it might be wrong.

If your GTM feels stuck, ask yourself:
👉 “Where am I avoiding a clear bet?”

P.S. Drop me a DM if you want my new Positioning Framework.

Me: "We're working in 2-week GTM sprints"
Founder: "Okay, but what does that look like practically?"

Below you see a real example of a GTM sprint board with one of my clients (Thomas Moussafer  Andy M. ).

We usually use Notion for sprint planning.

And a very simple Kanban board.

To keep things organized, we use:
--> Backlog
--> Ideas for next sprint
--> This sprint planned
(here we add all the initiatives that we want to focus on in the next 2 weeks)
--> In progress
--> Done this sprint

Each Initiative comes with an owner, deadline and related topic cluster.

Within a card, we share:
- templates & best practices
- updates & drafts
- reviews

It's 100% not the most sophisticated project management ever.

But I am 100% convinced.
Keep things simple.
Clarity wins.

👇Let me know. Do you like more 'behind the scenes' content?

---
P.S. Want to improve your user onboarding? Check out Jimo

graphical user interface, text, application

I’ve asked GTM advisor Björn W. Schäfer what founders misunderstand about ICP. Let’s hear his advice 👇

ICP clarity is not a workshop. It’s a discipline.

Most founders think they know their ICP once they hit early traction. They don’t. They just have a few happy customers.

Segment by outcome:
Who gets the fastest and most measurable ROI?

Look where deals close fastest, with the lowest discount and fastest time-to-value. That’s your real ICP.

Build an Anti-ICP list. Knowing who not to sell to saves massive effort.

👉 Want to hear 15 more expert tips. Read the latest MRR Unlocked episode. Link is in the comments.

One sprint item last week:

Launching evergreen signal-based outbound for my client Jimo

In 2026, I want to share more content about the actual work I do with the founders in my GTM advisory.

The core concept:
--> 2 week GTM sprints
--> Each sprint comes with 3-5 initiatives 

So one sprint item last week was to launch signal-based outreach campaigns.

Step 1 was to decide on the relevant signals.

In our case, we decided on 4 key signals:

--> Negative reviews on competitor tools
(they operate in a highly crowded red ocean)

--> Lookalike of happy customers
(reaching out to companies very similar to their happy customers)

--> Champion getting hired
(We know if they are hiring 'the champion role' the topic the tool helps fix is hot)

--> Website visitors
(proactively reaching out to ICP contacts that are visiting their website)

Step 2

Setting up the tracking of these signals. And pushing relevant leads to the outreach tool (this time GetSales.io - most of the time I recommend lemlist)

--> Snitcher for website visitor

--> manual g2, capterra research for negative reviews (any good tips to track these signals?)

--> LinkedIn job search for hiring (and using Cargo 🧱 to automate this)

--> Ocean.io for lookalike

Step 3 

Building a LinkedIn DM campaign with (2-4 DM) for each signal.

---
Evergreen signal-based outbound is one of 4 key initiatives that we bet on in Q1. 

👇What are your best signal-based outreach campaigns?

I like being a solopreneur.
I really do.

But liking it doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Content, client work, sales calls, finance, launching new products...

Most days, it’s all on my plate.
You switch contexts constantly.
You make decisions alone.

And sometimes you just want to talk to someone who gets it.
That’s why I’m genuinely excited about the solopreneur event on May 8th.

A room full of people wearing the same hats,
dealing with similar challenges.

It's the first time this year. And I'm sure Stephanie Sgura and Christiana Kunzner-Brand will host a master event 🥳 

I’ll be there and share a lot of my learnings.

Who's joining me?

Strategy & GTM Advisor | Follow me for strategy, growth, and leadership tips.

I lead Growth at Pricing I/O, the leading hands-on SaaS pricing consultancy.

Our track record:
→ 400+ software companies
→ 98% client satisfaction
→ 15x average Year 1 ROI

Before joining Pricing I/O, I was their client. I spent 11 years at Mercatus, a private equity software company:

→ Started as employee #5
→ Navigated multiple promotions
→ Eventually became Global Head of Product & Marketing
→ Built global teams and owned pricing and GTM strategy
→ Hired Pricing I/O in 2019, a key inflection point
→ Delivered Avg 85% YoY ACV growth 
→ Led to a 9-figure exit to State Street (Fortune 250)
→ Company now manages $1.8+ trillion in private equity assets for the world's largest investors

I lived the pricing struggle every leader fears:
→ Sleepless nights: Are we leaving millions on the table?
→ Boardroom wars: Everyone has an opinion on price
→ Investor pressure: Triple revenue AND keep customers happy

If your feel the same way at your software company, let's talk.

Connect:
→ Book a FREE pricing strategy call at pricingio dot com
→ Join The Moat, my free newsletter for B2B leaders for an inside look at our growth playbook.

Ali Mamujee

In 2012, Best Buy should’ve died:

Wall Street called it “dead walking.”
The stock hit a 10-year low.
They lost $1.7B in a single quarter.

The industry even named the problem: “showrooming.”

Customers walked into Best Buy, touched the TV, scanned the barcode, and bought it cheaper on Amazon - while standing in the aisle.

The advice to the incoming CEO Hubert Joly was obvious:
→ Close stores immediately
→ Fire thousands of employees
→ Accept that physical retail is dead

He did the opposite.

Joly launched "Renew Blue" with a simple insight:
"Showrooming proves customers want the store experience. They just don't want to overpay for it."

His counterintuitive solution:

1. Price Match Guarantee
↳ This didn’t win the sale.
↳ It removed the only reason customers had to leave.

2. Invested in employees
↳ While others treated staff as a cost center.
↳ Joly invested in expertise customers actually valued.

3. Turned stores into brand showcase partners
↳ He realized stores are media channels not just warehouses
↳ He got Samsung, Microsoft, Google, and later Amazon to pay for floor space to showcase their tech.

The result:
→ Stock rallied from $12 (2012) to $70+ (subsequent years)
→ Returned to profitability
→ "Showrooms" became an asset, not a liability
→ Became the go-to partner tech brands.

The lesson:
The leaders who win don’t eliminate their disadvantages. 
They reframe them and build a strategy around what others misinterpret.

♻️ Repost if this resonates.
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In 2013, Adobe made the most hated pricing decision in tech:

~ 50,000 customers signed a petition begging them not to do it.
They ignored every single one.

For years, Adobe sold its creative suite in a box:
Pay once. Use it forever.

It worked - until it didn’t.

Customers skipped upgrades (the old version still worked)
Revenue spiked at launches and sagged in between
The upfront price locked out millions of would-be users

So in May 2013, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen announced:

CS6 would be the last major perpetual release.
Future innovation would ship through Creative Cloud.

The response was intense. Forums were flooded.
Long-time customers were angry.

And the financial impact was real.
Net income fell from $832.8M to $290.0M - a ~65% drop.

But Adobe wasn’t just changing prices.
They were changing who could enter.

Narayen faced a choice: listen to 50,000 angry customers or risk short-term pain for long-term transformation. He chose the risk.

By moving to subscriptions, they:
- Lowered the barrier to start
- Created continuous value instead of one-time upgrades
- Built an always-on relationship with customers

Over time, that changed everything.

→ Stock: ~$37.68 (2012) → $444.68 (2024)
→ Revenue: $4.4B (2012) → $21.5B (2024)
→ Subscribers: 37M+ (2024)

The lesson isn’t that subscriptions magically create growth.

It’s that pricing power comes from removing friction for the right customers.

When you make it easier for people to start, stay, and succeed, revenue follows.

♻️ Repost for your network
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The advice I needed the most when I felt incredibly lost:

Pursue yourself.

Sometimes feeling lost is that pause before clarity.

Here are 3 truths that helped me:

1. Find What Lights You Up 
 ↳ Pay attention to what energizes, not just what pays.
 ↳ Trust the moments that make you feel alive.

2. Break Free From Others' Dreams 
 ↳ Stop chasing someone else's definition of success.
 ↳ Your path doesn't need to make sense to anyone else.

3. Start Small, Start Now 
 ↳ Take one tiny step toward what interests you.
 ↳ Let action clear the fog of uncertainty.

Your gut knows where you need to go. 

Trust that voice – it's been right all along.

♻️ Repost for others who need to hear this.
 
Quote credit: @elevated states

In 1962, Ford spotted a generation priced out of their dreams:

A wave of young buyers (baby boomers) wanted something sporty. Something that felt like freedom.

But the options were out of reach: 
Corvette: ~$4,000. 
European sports cars: even more.

Ford’s research showed these buyers would pay up to $2,500 for the right car: style + identity, without luxury-sports pricing.

Most automakers would've tried to build a cheaper Corvette: strip features, cut corners, compete on specs.

Ford took a different bet.

Lee Iacocca, Ford's VP and the internal champion for this vision, realized these buyers weren't buying horsepower.

They were buying identity. Style. Customization. A car that said something about who they were.

So the Mustang was designed around that insight:
→ Style over specs (emotion beats horsepower)
→ Customization over bundles (let buyers make it theirs)
→ 4 seats, not 2 (sporty and practical)
→ Built on the Falcon platform (so the economics worked)

They didn't build a cheap sports car. 
They created a new category: the pony car.

Result:
→ Launched April 1964 at $2,368
 → Forecast: 100,000 in year one
 → Actual: 418,000
 → 1M+ in 18 months

The lesson:

That's what value-based pricing really means:
Pick the market you want. Pick the buyer you're serving. 
Then design the offer that wins at that price point.

♻️ Repost if this resonates.
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Patrick's strategy for Colossus hit different. 

(Colossus is a premium print magazine + media company run by Patrick O'Shaughnessy - it’s one of my favorite things to get in the mail.)

He wrote: "I don't like to destroy competitors. 
I just feel bad that it's not unique enough."

That’s always been my philosophy.
If we’re being compared, we haven’t built something distinct enough yet.

I see too many B2B companies stuck in feature warfare - matching competitors point-by-point, racing to parity.

The problem isn't that they're losing.

It's that they're playing a game where "winning" still leaves them commoditized.

Most strategies sound like:
"We'll be faster."
"We'll be cheaper."
"We'll outwork them."

But the best strategies don't start with comparison.
They start with: What are we building that didn't exist before? 

When your offering is truly unique:
- Price objections disappear
- Competitors become irrelevant
- Customers can't find alternatives

The best strategy isn't about winning the race.
It's about running a different race entirely.

♻️Repost this if it resonated.
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If your B2B deals keep stalling, run these 3 checks:

These checks come straight from our sales-call reviews with trusted advisors.

This is for complex, multi-stakeholder B2B cycles.

1) Are all the right people in the room?
In complex B2B purchases, decisions rarely sit with one person.
Buying groups average ~5.4 stakeholders - each with different incentives and concerns (CEB).

That’s why stalled deals often sit with a single champion: someone who loves the idea but doesn’t own the budget.

Test: If your champion left tomorrow, would the deal survive?

Fix: Keep your champion empowered but earn access to the people who weigh in and sign off.

2) Can you make the future state concrete?
Deals drag when the customer keeps re-explaining themselves.
Calls spread out. People rotate in. Memory resets.

Test: On every call, can you say:
→ Here’s the problem you described
→ Here’s what “better” looks like (in your words)
→ Here’s the gap between now and there

Fix: Restate the before/after every call. Not once. Every time.

3) Have you put a number on their pain?
Most reps stop at “that sounds painful.”
But pain without numbers rarely creates urgency.

Test: When they say "discounting is out of control," do you know the actual cost?

Example: A $100M SaaS company with a 5% discounting gap leaks $5M/year.
Make it real:
→ ~$400K/month
→ ~$20K/day 

Suddenly a $200K engagement isn’t “expensive.” It’s a 10 working-day payback.

Fix: Don't build a fancy ROI calculator. Get one simple number they agree is real.

If a deal is stuck in “maybe,” it’s usually failing one of these checks.

Run the diagnostic. Fix the failure point. Watch it move.

♻️ Repost if your sales team needs this
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A $100M+ company wrote this in an RFP they sent us:

“We’ve created the appearance of modern pricing with none of the behavior.”

Most honest thing I've read.

They had done everything “right”:
→ Moved from seats to usage
→ Launched a self-serve tier
→ Built enterprise packaging

On paper, it looked modern. But underneath:

→ Sales still discounted like it was 2015
→ Customers still couldn’t explain what they were paying for
→ Finance still couldn’t forecast revenue with confidence

The model changed. The behavior didn’t.

At Pricing I/O, we're seeing this pattern everywhere:

Companies adopt the language of modern pricing - usage-based, PLG, value-aligned - without building the system to support it.

So what happens?

→ The new pricing sits on a page no one actually uses
→ Sales defaults to whatever closes the deal
→ Customers feel the disconnect and push back harder

The gap between “announced pricing” and “real pricing” quietly grows.

And leadership wonders why the transformation isn’t working.

Here’s the truth most teams miss:
Pricing transformation isn’t a launch. It’s a rewiring.

It touches:
→ How sales gets paid
→ How CS talks about value
→ How finance measures success
→ How product designs packaging

Change the model without changing those and the organization pulls it back to the old way.

If your pricing looks modern but still feels stuck, the problem probably isn’t the model. It’s everything around it.

♻️ Repost if this hit close to home
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A higher price can literally make the same product feel better:
(according to brain scan)

Not “feel” as in marketing fluff.
Feel as in: your brain processes it differently.

In a 2017 experiment (INSEAD + University of Bonn), people tasted the same €12 red wine but saw three different price tags:

- Wine bottle #1: €3
- Wine bottle #2: €6
- Wine bottle #3: €18

The “€18” wine was rated as more pleasant.

And brain scans (MRI) showed price cues shifted activity in reward/valuation-related regions.

Same liquid. Different reality.

The point isn’t “charge more.” 
The point is: price is part of the experience.

The pricing lesson for SaaS:

If you underprice (or over-discount), you don’t just lose revenue.

You often create:
- more skepticism (“what’s the catch?”)
- more nitpicking (“why doesn’t it do X?”)
- less patience during onboarding (“not worth the time”)

Because the brain uses price as a shortcut for value.

So the real question isn’t:
“What’s the minimum I can charge?”

It’s:

“What price supports the value story customers need to believe - so they actually experience the value?”

♻️Repost this if it resonated.
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Source: Schmidt et al. (2017), Scientific Reports - INSEAD & University of Bonn

In 2008, Airbnb was failing.

They had almost no traffic. 

Co-founders (Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia) had racked up $20,000 in credit card debt each. 
 
And they’d made less than $5,000 from the actual Airbnb business.

So they did something that sounds like a joke…
They made election cereal.

Two boxes: Obama O’s and Cap’n McCain’s. 

They printed and hand-assembled 1,000 boxes, and sold them as limited edition collectibles for $40 each. 

The press ate it up.
Obama O’s sold out. 
Cap’n McCain’s didn’t. 

But the stunt did what the product couldn’t (yet):
It generated $20,000–$30,000 - more than the company had made from bookings. 

Then came the interview that changed everything.

Paul Graham - the founder of Y Combinator, the startup accelerator - didn't love the Airbnb idea.

Until he heard the cereal story.

His line: "If you can convince people to pay $40 for a $4 box of cereal, you can probably convince strangers to stay in other strangers' homes."

He called them "cockroaches."
They just wouldn't die.

Then → Now
Airbnb’s FY2024 revenue was $11.1B. 
And it generated $4.5B in trailing-twelve-month free cash flow. 

The lesson for founders:
Runway isn't only money in the bank. 
It's your ability to manufacture value when the core model isn't working yet.

♻️ Repost if this resonated.
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I spent 11 years at Mercatus that sold for 9 figures.
If I had to credit one framework, it’d be this one slide.

Back in 2015, Peter Cohan trained our team at Mercatus.
(He wrote Great Demo, Doing Discovery, & Suspending Belief)

He taught us the Situation Slide (see image 👇)
Real example + editable slide link in the comments 👇

If you run B2B sales calls, use this as the North Star for discovery.

It forces clarity before you pitch.
Who it’s for. What’s at risk. Why now. And what it’s worth.

It didn’t just improve sales. It became our storytelling framework for the entire company.

→ Sales used it to qualify pipeline 
→ Product used it to prioritize the roadmap 
→ Marketing pulled messaging directly from it
→ Customer Success referenced it during onboarding 

Fast forward to Pricing I/O: our pipeline nearly 2x'd - and win rates had to follow. So I brought it back.

It’s the fastest way I know to spot unqualified pipeline early.

Incomplete slide = incomplete qualification. 

♻️ Repost if your sales team needs this
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Mailchimp’s accidental move 5x’d growth in a year.

Here’s how it happened:

In 2009, Mailchimp had $0 in funding.
Their competitor, Constant Contact, had raised $100M+.

Mailchimp couldn’t outspend them.
So co-founder Ben Chestnut needed a different way to grow.

Ben’s plan: split Mailchimp into two products.
→ Free for building email lists
→ Paid for sending emails

But the lead engineer said the codebase was too complex to split.

The engineer’s workaround:
“Instead of two products, I’ll make it one but free up to a limit.”

Ben’s response: “We’re running out of time. Do it.”

Ben later said they didn’t want to give anything away for free:
 “We wanted to charge the hell out of people.

That’s it. No grand strategy.
An engineer’s shortcut became the freemium model.

The results: 

→ Users: 85k → 450k in 12 months (≈5x)
→ Profit increased by 650% 
→ CAC dropped to under $100

Here's what made it work:

Free wasn't charity. Free was the funnel.
Every email sent by a free user carried Mailchimp's badge. 
Customer usage became the marketing engine.

In 2021, Intuit acquired Mailchimp for $12B.

The lesson:
Freemium only works when "free" creates a loop: 

→ What action delivers value fast? 
→ What action spreads the product? 
→ What moment naturally triggers "now I'll pay"?

If your free tier doesn't answer all three - it's not freemium. It's just free.

♻️ Share this with a founder 
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AI was supposed to deliver massive value

Instead it’s delivering massive shelfware.

AI has become the easiest justification for a price increase.

But a lot of customers aren’t adopting it. They’re hesitating.

Because they don’t trust they’ll stay in budget.

Some numbers that explain why:
→ 68% of vendors restrict AI to premium tiers 
→ AI add-ons can add 30–110% to the base cost 
→ Orgs use only 47% of their SaaS licenses 

And the pattern looks like this:

Vendor: “We added AI. Price goes up.”
Buyer: “Fine. We need to stay current.”
Finance: “Why did spend jump?”
Users: “I’m not clicking that - what if it charges us?”

One pricing strategist put it perfectly:
“Usage stopped not because of price, but because admins didn’t trust they’d stay in budget.” 

If customers are afraid to use what they’re paying for, you didn’t create value. You created anxiety.

The best pricing doesn’t maximize what you can charge.
It maximizes what customers will actually use.

♻️ Repost if you’ve seen this in your stack
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How to sell your most expensive plan:

Change what it’s compared to.

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely showed this in an experiment.
He tested The Economist’s subscription options with 100 MIT students:

→ Web Only: $59 
→ Print Only: $125 
→ Print + Web: $125

With all three options available:
→ 16% chose Web-only
→ 0% chose Print-only
→ 84% chose Print + Web

Then he removed the "useless" Print-only option.

The results flipped:
68% chose Web-only while 32% chose Print + Web

The high tier went from the clear favorite to the minority choice just by removing an option nobody wanted anyway.

People decide based on what something sits next to.

If your high tier plan feels expensive instead of worth it, look at the context you're giving it.

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