The coffee shop founder who told me my revenue goal was too small

I was at a coworking space in Austin last spring, just grabbing a coffee before a meeting. This guy in his 50s sits down next to me, sees my laptop with a spreadsheet open, and asks what I'm working on. I tell him I run a small B2B SaaS tool and my goal is to hit $10k MRR by end of year. He laughs, not mean but like I'm missing something obvious. He says, 'You're thinking too small, if you solve one real pain for businesses, $10k is just your first month.' Then he walks me through how he built his last company to $2M ARR in 18 months by charging 10x what competitors did. He showed me his pricing page on his phone and it was just insane numbers. I asked him his secret and he said 'find a problem that costs companies $50k a month and charge them $5k to fix it.' That conversation totally flipped how I think about pricing and value now. Anyone else run into someone who just reset your whole mindset like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

hannaht298d ago

Respectfully, charging high only works if you can actually deliver that level of value to clients.

lily976d ago

And you gotta prove that value first with a pilot or case study before asking for the big numbers.

white.alex6d ago

Not everything needs this whole proving ground first approach. Some people just have the confidence and the track record to charge what they want from day one. Plenty of freelancers and small businesses start with premium pricing and it works out fine because they attract the right crowd. It's not like every client demands a pilot project before they'll trust you. Maybe it depends on the industry but this sounds like advice for people who are scared to ask for what they're worth. You really think every successful business started with a case study?