We spend a lot of time with founders working through early pricing. The specifics change, but the guidance is remarkably consistent. This article lays out a practical starting point for setting your first price.
The most important advice we give is this: your pricing will change. Pricing is a tool, and you will want it to accomplish different goals at different times. Later on, that goal may be rapid growth, competitive positioning, or profitability. Early on, the goal is to learn quickly.
"A lot of bigger orgs... every 6 to 12 to 18 months, they’re thinking about how should pricing change." -- Fynn Glover, CEO, Schematic
There are 3 main steps in early pricing:
Choosing an initial price
How to determine your next price
How to continue to iterate on your price
"So at first, when you're just going to market, you're optimizing for what's the fastest way to communicate value and sell what you have.” -- Gio Hobbins, CPO, Schematic
Many founders stress over “getting the number right” on day one. You don’t need to! If you’re entering an existing market, start with a flat monthly price at roughly half the going rate for comparable tools. If you’re in a new or ambiguous category, pick a number your ideal buyer can put on a credit card without thinking twice. Your goal is to avoid sticker shock and a) prove that some people are willing to pay for your product and b) build a set of 5-10 customers who you can learn from.
Your first plan should probably include unlimited usage of your product. Gio routinuley tells founders they want "the easiest way to just say this thing costs X per month." You'll have plenty of time to introduce usage or credit based pricing in the future. For now, focus on landing your first cohort of customers.
"If you guys spend your life building something for three years and nobody's willing to pay for it, that is a waste of your time." -- Fynn
While you're first price was just to get rolling, your next prices should be more thoughtful and data driven. To start, you'll need to talk people who could buy your product. You want to start this process early as possible -- the sooner the better! Put your product in front of your prospects and treat the conversation as a fact-finding exercise, not a sales call! If you're product isn't ready yet, you can use a Figma mockup or a prototype built in Loveable instead.
You want to talk to as many people as possible. Start with people in your network. Then, after each useful call, ask for introductions to two or three others who have a point of view on the problem. You’ll quickly build a small pipeline of conversations.
Fynn recommends 3 ways to hone in your pricing, based on how well you understand the market. These work for both Consumer and Enteprise products:
Known category, strong sense of the market
If you have a strong sense of the market already, we suggest choosing the price you think makes sense, then asking your prospects the following multiple choice question to verify you're choice. You can also use this to explore a few different price points. Start with a demo of the product, then ask:
This tool costs X per month. Based on what you anticipate this product's going to do for you, which of the following best describes your willingness and intent to purchase?
I would purchase this product immediately and I have the authority to do so.
I would advocate for purchasing this product at the stated price, but I would need to get approval from others, which I believe is achievable.
I'd consider purchasing this product, but significant internal approval would be required, and I'm uncertain of the outcome.
At the stated price, the product is beyond our current budget or cost expectations.
If most answers land in 1 or 2, you’re in range. If they cluster in 3 or 4, test lower price points.
Known category, weak sense of the market
If you’re in a known category, but don't have a strong sense of the market, you can use relative value to find your next price point. “Is this ~50% of the cost of the tool you use today? 100%? more?” Probe your prospect to how they are comparing you to their current tool and what they value most. This is a good way to understand how you stack up against other tools in the category. When you first start, you're likely to be perceived as lower value than existing tools in the market. With time, you will close the gap as your product matures.
Unknown category
If you truly don’t know where to start with your pricing, use an open ended question to determine a price ceiling. We suggest "What’s the maximum you’d pay before it feels unfair?" or “At what price would you say ‘that’s crazy’?" to find a price ceiling. Likewise, "At what price is this product a 'no-brainer' and you'd buy it immeditely?" can help you identify the price floor. Together, they will help you build a price range for your product.
Regardless of which approach you use, you'll want to have at least 5-10 conversations to start. Use the same script in each and remember, you're here to learn, not sell. Letting founder charisma take over is one of the most common mistakes we seen when trying to identify pricing.
You’re ultimately looking for convergence. You want to find the value metric that feels most intuitive to buyers and a clear price band between “no-brainer” and “prohibitive”. You're also hoping to find practical insight into how customers would buy. Then you’ll be ready to adjust your initial price with confidence.
"You can screw up your brand reputation with a bad pricing change." -- Fynn
As you grow, your pricing will change as well. Treat each change as a deliberate adjustment to what you want pricing to accomplish right now. Start by identifying the objective you hope to achieve. Are you optimizing for faster adoption? Stronger unit economics? Clear positioning against competitors? This choice should guide how you setup your plans and determine the price points you set.
When you do change your pricing, we suggest leaving existing customers on their current plans whenever possible. Offering "Legacy" Plans (or a long, migration window) improve customer trust and reduces churn risk when pricing changes. Move legacy customers only when there’s a clear reason, like materially new capabilities, higher service levels, or a cost structure shift that you can explain plainly.
During a pricing change, communication is key to securing customer trust. State the new price, what’s staying the same, when the change takes effect, and what options they have (e.g. stay on legacy, migrate now, or migrate later). Provide a clear explanation of why pricing is changing and how a customer like them is likely to be impacted (if you can use actual usage data for the customer, that's even better).
Finally, make sure your main pricing maps to the value your customers receive. If you're an email marketing platform, pricing on sent emails is good; even better would be pricing on opened emails. If you discover that your current lever (e.g. seats, requests, assets, tickets resolved) no longer reflects value, be willing to change it. Expect more migration work, but it’s better to correct the metric than to keep “optimizing” a structure that customers perceive as arbitrary. A good test is whether customers understand how they’ll grow and feel comfortable that higher bills arrive only when they’re getting more value from the product.
Early pricing is a learning exercise, not a referendum on your product’s worth. Start simple: one plan, one number that reduces friction and gets you into real trials. Run at least 10 structured pricing conversations, capture what you hear in one place, and use that to refine your view of value and price.
As you grow, revisit pricing with a clear objective. Keep your main lever mapped to customer value, protect trust by communicating changes plainly, and leave legacy plans in place when you can. Done well, pricing is a lever you deliberately tune as you grow, not a constraint that gets in the way.
