Pricing I/O

VP of Growth

Ali Mamujee

Investor and advisor to growth-stage startups.

Founder

Mercatus is now Charles River for Private Markets

Over 11 years, I scaled from employee #5 to help build a leading private equity software company that manages trillions of dollars of assets, culminating in a 9-figure acquisition by State Street.

Led strategic product strategy, M&A, GTM, positioning, and pricing across private markets tech.

Global Head of Product, Private Markets

Led global positioning, marketing, GTM, and pricing.

Vice President of Product Strategy

Senior Director of Product Management

Director of Customer Success

Senior Investment Associate

VERT Investment Group

Key team member of a leading cleantech merchant bank.

Senior Investment Banking Associate

Created pretty Excel models and PowerPoints during the 2008 financial crisis.

Investment Banking Analyst

Element Markets

Renewable energy project finance hedge fund based in Houston.

Analyst - Project Finance Intern

Frog Capital Ltd

One of the best jobs I ever had. I read cleantech business plans all day in a beautiful London art studio. I worked with really smart partners and got a front row seat of venture capital deal execution.

Analyst - Venture Capital Intern

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 7 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 40% YoY and 85% 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 SaaS leaders for an inside look at our growth playbook.

"If you raise the price of the hot dog, I will kill you."

Costco co-founder Jim Sinegal said this to his successor, CEO Craig Jelinek.

In 1984, Costco introduced their hot dog combo for $1.50.

By 2009, they were losing money on every single one.

Craig suggested raising the price.

Jim shut it down instantly:

“This isn’t about the hot dog.
 The day we raise the price is the day we start losing who we are.”

So instead of raising prices, they rebuilt the entire supply chain:

- Built their own hot dog manufacturing facility
- Created Kirkland Signature hot dogs
- Vertically integrated sourcing and distribution
- Took cost per combo from $1.75 → $0.80

The result:

- 92% membership renewal (highest in retail)
- Every 1% boost = $1.5B in recurring fees
- Same price for 41 years, despite ~200% inflation
- ~200 million hot dog combos sold annually
 (about 10× more than every MLB stadium combined)

This was never about the hot dog. It was a symbol.

A promise that Costco would not trade trust for margin.

Because once you break the promise that defines your brand… customers never see you the same way again.

Pricing is not just how you capture value.
It’s how you communicate who you are.

♻️ Repost if this resonates 
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VP Growth of Pricing I/O

This is the greatest management communication ever written:

In November 1979, Andy Grove faced every leader's nightmare: A competitor was about to destroy Intel's entire business. 

Motorola's new chip was objectively better than theirs.

Grove knew they had weeks, not months to respond.

What happened next was remarkable.

Grove gathered 100 key leaders in a San Jose hotel room to align on Intel’s OKRs. 

One day later, he wrote his "Operation Crush Memo" which became legendary:

→ "Motorola is beating us. Their chip is better. Full stop."

→ "We're losing because we forgot who we serve, not because of technology."

→ "Every engineer will be paired with a customer. Learn their problems firsthand."

→ "200 days. 2000 design wins. No excuses.”

The entire organization transformed overnight:

→ A massive chart in HQ tracked every win 
→ Every department aligned to one mission 
→ Every engineer became a solution provider, not a chip seller

Result?
 
→ Intel won 2000+ designs in 12 months 
→ Won IBM as their client for the first PC 
→ Sales grew from $1B to $1.6B in just one year 
→ Intel dominated personal computing for the next 30 years

Grove's efforts led to one of his most famous quote:

"Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them."

The Lesson:

When the stakes are high, you don’t need complexity.

You need: One clear message. One shared mission. One moment of alignment

Sometimes the turnaround happens in a single day - if the leader is willing to say the truth out loud.
 
♻️ Repost for your network.

P.S.  What is your favorite company turnaround story?

Source: Measure What Matters by John Doerr

Top 10 career myths that will hold you back:
(and what to do instead)

I’ve watched talented people derail their careers for 15+ years - often because they followed the wrong advice.

Here are the 10 myths I see derail people the most:

1. Work hard and success will follow
→ Corporate graveyards are filled with hard workers
→ Combine smart work with strategic visibility

2. Keep your career options open
→ Jack of all trades trap stops growth
→ Focus on deep expertise + broad awareness

3. Leaders must have all the answers
→ This creates bottlenecks.
→ Build a team smarter than you and unleash their genius

4. Never leave before 2 years
→ Time served doesn't equal value created
→ Make moves that multiply your growth

5. Always be available
→ Recipe for burnout
→ Set clear boundaries. Be reliable, not available 24/7

6. Never show weakness
→ Old school thinking breeds toxicity
→ Strategic vulnerability builds unstoppable teams

7. Never say no to opportunities
→ This dilutes your impact
→ Be selective. Only say yes to what amplifies your goals

8. Network, network, network
→ Random connections = zero value
→ Build genuine relationships through shared interests

9. Follow your passion
→ Passion rarely comes first
→ Master valuable skills, passion follows expertise

10. Fake it till you make it
→ Fastest way to lose credibility
→ Learn it while you earn it. Authenticity + competence wins

What would you add to the list?

♻️ Share to help someone avoid these myths.

The first time I used MapQuest, I literally said out loud: “Holy sh*t.”

If you were alive before GPS, you remember the chaos of road trips.

Unfolding giant maps in the car. Arguing with your dad over turns. Pulling over at shady gas stations for directions that made things worse.

Then one day, MapQuest appeared.

Type your address, click Get Directions, and suddenly you had a perfect route printed on clean paper.

Same dream outcome: get from point A to point B.
Completely different experience.

That’s the simplest way to explain value.

It’s not about changing the destination - it’s about removing friction from the journey.

The best products don’t always create more, they make what already exists feel effortless.

That’s the idea behind my new Value Creation Workbook — a 5-step framework to help you:

✅ Audit your current value using the Value Equation
✅ Identify where friction hides in your customer experience
✅ Choose from 50+ research-backed tactics to create value customers can feel

If you want to make your product someone’s “holy sh*t” moment – start here.

Download the free workbook below 👇  

♻️ Repost to help others create more value.

Value Creation Workbook by Ali Mamujee

I see this all the time with $5M–$30M ARR companies:

The product is genuinely loved.
Adoption is strong.
Expansion potential is right there.

But the pricing is timid.

Teams get scared to make even small changes.

 They’ll say things like:
“If we move from $29 → $33, we’ll lose half our customers.”

No, you won’t.

If a $4 increase feels risky, the issue isn’t price, it’s confidence.

We see this dynamic repeatedly at Pricing I/O:
Founders frame pricing as a risk instead of a growth motion.

That fear shows up as:
- Waiting for a competitor to “make the first move”
- Avoiding packaging decisions to avoid “confusing users”
- Treating pricing like a one-time project instead of a rhythm

But pricing confidence isn’t a spreadsheet exercise.
It’s a leadership exercise.

The way out is small and controlled:

- Test a 3–5% increase.
- Apply it to new customers first.
- Track conversion + retention.
- Let evidence build conviction.

Every time a team does this, the same thing happens:

The first few “yes” responses change how the entire company sees itself.

The real shift isn’t in the price. It’s in the identity.

Underdogs don’t lose because they’re smaller.
They lose because they act smaller.

Price like you know what you’re building.

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A lot of SaaS leaders ask the wrong question:

They ask: “Does it work?”
When they should be asking: “Is it desirable?”

I love this chart. It maps the four levels of user value:

- Relevant: "I need it." (You have a customer)
- Functional: "It works." (You have a tool)
- Desirable: "I want to do this. often." (You have a fan)
- Magical: "It has changed my life." (You have an advocate)

In my world (Growth & Pricing), we live and die by NRR. 
You can't get to 120%+ NRR if your product is just "Functional."

Why? 

Because a "Functional" product is replaceable. 

It’s where churn hides, discounts multiply, and competitors smell opportunity.

True growth doesn't come from a product that just “works.” 
It comes from an experience that's "Desirable."

That's the point where you earn the right to:

- Stop churning customers.
- Successfully cross-sell and up-sell.
- Move your pricing from cost-plus to true value-based.

Where does your product sit on this ladder?

♻️ Repost to help more SaaS teams climb from functional to desirable.

Chart Credit: The SWIPES Email

I watched Harry Dry speak at Dave Gerhardt’s Drive event:

He showed two versions of the same post by Eric Glyman (CEO of Ramp).

One post made Ramp the hero.
The other made the customer the hero.

Nothing about the product changed. 
But the second one stuck.

Because when you make your product the hero, prospects compare features.

When you make your customer the hero, they compare outcomes.

And that shift changes everything downstream:

Sales stops defending capabilities and starts exploring fit.

Deals move faster because you're solving their problem, not explaining yours.

Customers evangelize differently - they talk about what they achieved, not what you built.

I’ve seen this pattern across dozens of SaaS teams.

Teams who lead with “here’s what we do” end up in longer cycles and price fights.

Teams who lead with “here’s who you become” get pulled into deals.

Make your customer the hero.
It’s not just better storytelling - it makes you unforgettable.

♻️ Repost for your network

 Credit: Dave Gerhardt, Exit Five, and Harry Dry

The fastest way to ruin pricing is misplacing ownership:

Every messy pricing model I’ve seen had one thing in common: the wrong people were running it.

When pricing lives in the wrong corner of the org:

- Things get noisy fast 
- Value gets misinterpreted
- Discounts show up out of nowhere
- Pricing becomes reactive instead of strategic
- Decisions drift toward whatever feels urgent that week.

But when the right people own pricing, the whole system stabilizes:

- The value story tightens.
- Packaging stops bouncing around.
- Customer conversations get clearer.
- Sales knows what game they’re playing.
- Pricing finally reflects the product you worked hard to build.

The right owner understands the customer, the product, and the signals beneath the surface, they’re connected to value, not noise.

The wrong owner is stuck in transactions, quotas, or blind spots. Pricing can’t stay healthy in that environment.

Get ownership right, and pricing becomes easier to run, easier to defend, and easier to improve.

Just make sure the person who owns it actually has the desire - that’s the real unlock.

♻️ Repost to help others get pricing ownership right.
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There’s a hidden force shaping how you lead, think & decide

Most leaders never see it but it’s the key to better judgment:

For years, I assumed my instincts were shaped by experience - the roles I held, the projects I owned, the companies I helped grow.

But when I zoomed out, I realized something else:

Your instincts come from the people and ideas that shaped how you think.

- Your first manager.
 - A book you read too young.
 - A habit you picked up from a parent.
 - A philosophy you absorbed without noticing.

For me, that influence was Warren Buffett.

His ideas around simplicity, patience, discipline, and compounding didn’t just shape how I invest - they shaped how I live, how I decide, and how I approach work.

Not because I studied him professionally.
But because his worldview made sense of the world around me.

When you trace the philosophies behind your decisions, three things happen:

- You recognize your patterns
- You understand your blind spots
- You gain language for instincts you’ve always had

And once you see it, it’s impossible to unsee.

If you want better leadership, don’t start with new frameworks.

Start by understanding the influence that built your current ones.

That’s your real operating system.

♻️ Repost if this hit something true for you.

P.S. In the latest issue of The Moat, I unpacked my own love affair with Warren Buffett - and how his philosophy shaped the way I lead. Catch the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gyKBHhhF

Growing up, my dad read the Houston Post every morning:

All I ever saw was the back of the paper - a wall of tiny stock tickers in size-two font.

I didn’t understand any of it. But it made me curious.

So one day I asked him,
 “Dad, who’s the best at these numbers?”

He didn’t hesitate: Warren Buffett.

That answer shaped more of my life than I realized.

It led me to the library.
To a beige book called "The Intelligent Investor".
To a summer program at Columbia at 16.
To studying finance.
To a career in investing, fintech, startups.

But more than that - it shaped how I think.
Not just about investing, but about how I work, lead, and make decisions.

Here are the 7 principles of his that stayed with me - far beyond investing.

👉 Swipe through.

♻️ Share to help others.

 7 Warren Buffett Principles to Elevate Your Leadership

Neha Singh

The story behind stalled ARR is almost always the same:

At Pricing I/O, we’ve had value-metric debates that lasted longer than some teams’ entire pricing process.

And there’s a reason for it.

Pricing decisions quietly shape everything that comes after:

→ How expansion shows up
→ How sales frames the value
→ How product sequences roadmap
→ How efficiently revenue compounds
→ Even how valuation multiples hold up

You can see it in the patterns.

Teams stuck at $20M ARR are usually still using a model they built at $3M.

Teams at $100M are often still carrying discount habits they picked up at Series A.

None of this is about intelligence. It’s about evolution.

A healthy growth engine doesn’t come from “perfect pricing.”

It comes from pricing that matches your motion, your customer, and your stage and keeps evolving as you do.

If your business has changed but your pricing hasn’t, that’s the real stall.

♻️ Repost if this helped reframe how you think about pricing.
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