--- title: "Pricing v1: How to Charge Before Anyone Has Paid You | Hypergility" description: "A practical guide to setting your first prices: the trap of three tiers, value-based vs cost-plus, and when to raise." lang: en json-ld: | { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BlogPosting", "headline": "Pricing v1: How to Charge Before Anyone Has Paid You", "description": "A practical guide to setting your first prices: the trap of three tiers, value-based vs cost-plus, and when to raise.", "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mark Preston" } ], "datePublished": "2026-03-24T11:00:00+00:00", "dateModified": "2026-05-21T16:28:51.808646+00:00", "image": "https://aaiqevwzojrlzhxdxxzq.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media-processed/blog-heroes/pricing-v1-how-to-charge-before-anyone-has-paid-you.jpg", "keywords": "Monetise", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://www.hypergility.com/blog/pricing-v1-how-to-charge-before-anyone-has-paid-you" }, "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Hypergility", "url": "https://www.hypergility.com" } } --- [![Hypergility](/assets/hypergility-logo-BKOgRT51.png)for bold startups ](/) Services [Startup Grower](https://startupgrower.hypergility.io/)[Website Build](/build-your-website)[Public Sector Bids](/offerings/win-public-sector-bids)[Management Systems & Assurance](/services/management-systems) Who it's for [Are you a bold founder?](/are-you-a-bold-founder)[Innovation Hubs](/partners/innovation-hubs)[Universities](/partners/universities)[Researchers](/personas/researchers) [Why us](/why-us)[News](/news)[Try Startup Grower](https://startupgrower.hypergility.io/)[Contact](/contact) [Back to News](/news) ![Pricing v1: How to Charge Before Anyone Has Paid You](https://aaiqevwzojrlzhxdxxzq.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media-processed/blog-heroes/pricing-v1-how-to-charge-before-anyone-has-paid-you.jpg) Monetise # Pricing v1: How to Charge Before Anyone Has Paid You Mark Preston March 24, 2026 Pricing v1 is the decision founders agonise over for weeks and then change three times in the first quarter anyway. The goal of v1 is not to be right. It is to be defensible enough to put in front of a buyer so you can learn what the market will actually bear. ## The three pricing logics - Cost-plus — calculate cost-to-serve, add a margin. Safe, but caps your upside. - Competitor-based — anchor to the closest existing alternative. Useful as a sanity check, dangerous as a strategy. - Value-based — price as a fraction of the value created. The right answer long-term, but you need real data to land it. ## How to set v1 in 60 minutes Estimate the total annual cost or pain you remove for a typical customer. Take 10–20% of that number as the annual contract value. Cross-check against the closest competitor. If you are 3x more expensive, you need a clear reason. If you are cheaper, you are leaving money on the table — buyers use price as a quality signal. ## The three-tier trap Every SaaS landing page has Starter / Pro / Enterprise. Founders copy the pattern before they have one paying customer. Skip it. Until you have closed ten deals, run with one price for everyone. Three tiers force you to invent feature gates that distort your roadmap. ## Anchoring techniques that work in v1 **Quote a range, then a number.** 'Pilots are typically £15k–£40k. For what you have described, I would expect £25k.' The range establishes the market; the number gets the decision. **Annual contracts only.** Monthly billing is for products with frictionless self-serve onboarding. If you are doing a sales-led pilot, lock in 12 months. **Make the discount visible and rare.** List price £30k, founding-customer price £20k, three slots only. The discount earns you the close, the rarity earns you the next price hike. ## When to raise prices Three signals: nobody objects to price, your win rate is above 50% on qualified opportunities, or you cannot keep up with delivery at current pricing. The best time to raise is just before a launch, a new feature, or a new logo announcement — give yourself a narrative. Stress-test your first price card before it ships. Grower helps you anchor, range and narrate v1 pricing that buyers accept. [Try Grower](https://startupgrower.hypergility.io) Take the next step with Grower — the structured way to move from idea to traction. [Try Grower](https://startupgrower.hypergility.io) Grower is Hypergility's AI co-founder for early-stage teams — turning strategy into traction, week after week. 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