Hi all, I'm Nick, great to join this community! I'm a 20 year career consultant, and I spent the last 14 years at Simon-Kucher & Partners (Partner for the last 4) helping software, subscription, marketplace, and media/data companies (both B2B and B2C) figure out how to turn product value into scalable revenue based out of London, San Francisco and New York. I left in late 2023 to go independent. Partly to avoid burnout, partly to work on my own terms with client and consultant collaborators I enjoy working with the most, mostly so I could spend more time with my dog 🐶. Now I'm based in Mexico City, and since going indepenent have been working with clients like OpenAI, Culture Amp and Grammarly/Superhuman, among others, and have also found the space to figure out what life looks like when it doesn't just revolve around work (writing this from the Baja California coast rather than an office cubicle seems to be one definite improvement 😅). With over 50 projects under my belt, I've seen almost everything there is to see when it comes to monetization strategy challenges - I typically focus on packaging strategy, pricing architecture, value metrics, and helping teams implement pricing changes without breaking things. Projects range from hourly coaching for smaller companies, to full multi-month engagements with an experienced team of experts I fully trust supporting me. Last year all my projects had at least some level of focus on my clients' AI offerings, so excited to see what 2026 brings as AI Agents accellerate the value delivered and competition continues to heat up, while investors demand returns, as well as it's effect on consulting and my workflow, which I've been tinkering on in my free time. Happy to share war stories, compare notes, or offer ad-hoc advice whenever useful. Always open to mentorship chats too, and would love to connect with potential collaborators or those thinking about taking the leap out of corporate life to independency. 📧 nick@zarbstrategy.com | LinkedIn

Howdy pricing people! Last week's Office Hours was a blast. Huge thanks to the folks that attended and asked such thoughtful questions. For those who couldn't make it, I wanted to share the top 5 takeaways that resonated most: 1️⃣ Enterprise Accounts Are Systematically Underpriced Your largest accounts are often your most mispriced, and not by accident. Ulrik identifies three structural reasons: - They were won when your product was less mature, forcing bigger concessions - They had the most sophisticated procurement you'd faced at that point - You have the fewest "at bats" with enterprise deals, so you're essentially flying blind The implication: don't assume your biggest customer represents your pricing ceiling. They likely represent your biggest historical discount. 2️⃣ You should Build "Enterprise-Only" SKUs You'll Rarely Use Standard pricing is designed for 98% of customers but may only capture 50% of total value. For the top 20 accounts, Ulrik recommends creating specialized monetization tools: - Commercial SLAs (custom billing, multi-entity invoicing, contract flexibility) - Enterprise service tiers with dedicated support - Usage limits on legal entities or deployments These can shift the revenue mix so that your core metric (price per seat, API call, etc.) becomes only 30% of the deal—with the other 70% coming from enterprise-specific add-ons. 3️⃣ Validate Price Increases Through New Sales First When testing a 10x price increase for enterprise, don't start with your existing flagship accounts—your team will fold if they push back. Instead: 1. Test new pricing on prospects in your pipeline (it's emotionally easier to lose money you never had) 2. Close a few new accounts at the higher price point 3. Then approach smaller existing customers and roll them up 4. Finally, go to your largest account armed with proof: "Four accounts smaller than you are paying twice as much" 4️⃣ Horizontal Products Must Accept Value Leakage, Or Go Vertical

Hey everyone, happy 2026! I am currently digging into credit models and trying to implement a specific setup that Ulrik advocated for. The core idea is giving all credits upfront for the billing cycle but letting them roll over into the next cycle. I am sold on the psychological upside for pricing behavior, but the accounting team is pushing back. I am struggling to find exact matches. I usually just see these two credit models: - All credits at the start of the billing cycle but they expire at the end (max 12M lifetime) - Credits given on the 1st of every month with a rollover cap (usually 2x monthly allowance) Does anyone know of any well-known SaaS companies doing the specific combo of credits upfront + 24-month rollover?

Howdy Pricing People 👋🏼 There's a fundamental tension in SaaS I can't stop thinking about: Every SaaS company wants an AI story right now. To have a credible AI story, people need to be using your AI features. If people are using your AI features at scale, your margins will take a hit. Nobody wants margin erosion because we're still valuing SaaS companies on metrics built for the previous generation. The short-term playbook says protect your margins. The long-term playbook says invest in AI or get left behind. They don't reconcile. I'm genuinely curious how you're all thinking about this: - What should SaaS companies be doing right now? - Seemingly everyone is turning to credits as a hedge to both tell the AI story and maintain margin control. Are there other strategies SaaS companies should consider? - Does something fundamental need to change in how we evaluate these businesses? Drop your thoughts below. I'll be digging into this in this week's newsletter, and would love to share perspectives from this group. 🫡 Rob

Does anyone have any benchmarks on what hospitals are willing-to-pay for SaaS Medtech / HealthTech products? This SaaS product provides analytical and predictive support across five hospital domains - Patients, ER, Beds/Wards, Surgery/Theatre and Outpatients. I'm particularly interested in "cost-per-head-of-population" or "cost-per-hospital-bed" metrics, which would provide alignment with activity-based funding models in public hospitals. There may be others...? Also interested in metrics for private hospitals (if / where different). DM's welcome if you prefer. Thanks in advance.