In this episode, we sit down with pricing expert Dan Balcauski, founder of Product Tranquility, to unpack why most B2B SaaS companies struggle with pricing and packaging as they scale — and how to fix it.

We cover: - Why pricing problems are usually customer understanding problems

- How high-velocity SaaS companies should approach pricing iterations

- Why product marketing — not sales or finance — should own pricing

- How to avoid "commercial debt" when expanding product lines

- The second-order effects of AI on software creation and monetization

- How great product leaders use business cases and tradeoffs to drive enterprise value

Dan also shares his personal inflection point that transformed his career trajectory.

If you work in SaaS product, marketing, or sales leadership, this conversation has a lot of utility for thinking about monetization strategically.

⏳Chapters

00:00 – Intro: Why pricing is more than just a number

01:04 – Dan’s background: From product to pricing consultancy

03:14 – Who Product Tranquility serves (and who it doesn’t)

04:44 – Two pricing models: High-ACV vs high-velocity SaaS

06:14 – Pricing iteration speed and the impact of sales cycle length

07:48 – Pricing changes and deals in flight: What to watch out for

10:32 – Common reasons SaaS companies seek pricing help

13:50 – M&A, commercial debt, and SKU sprawl explained

15:28 – Where to begin when everything feels messy

15:55 – The SVCS pricing framework: Segment, Value, Competition, Strategy

18:23 – Why companies “lose the plot” on who their customers are

21:50 – Staying close to the customer as a founder or product leader

22:55 – Should pricing be a one-time project or a continuous capability?

24:39 – Pricing is political: navigating org-wide incentives

27:05 – Product’s role in monetization: where PMs win or fail

28:09 – How product leaders can drive enterprise value

31:59 – Who should own pricing? (Spoiler: Not sales or finance)

34:24 – Fynn’s 4-part framework for heroic PMs (Dan critiques it)

35:36 – Why PM education often lacks commercial grounding

38:22 – The 3 archetypes of product managers (and their blind spots)

41:26 – How AI changes the cost curve of building software

45:15 – Second-order effects: why AI will expand SaaS, not shrink it

46:37 – Dan’s career inflection point: taming the voice in your head

47:00 – Outro and thanks