SaaS is about creating long-term value for your customer, and being compensated appropriately for that value as a business. Learn actionable monetization tips from a Product/Growth operator turned VC.

1. Professional Background
201
1
2002
2006
2018+
2013+
naomi@menlovc.com
@npilosof
Started growth function at Evernote & Invoice2go
• Evernote: 10M to 100M users
• Invoice2go: Top-grossing business app worldwide
Began career in engineering
New product development
Partner at Menlo Ventures focused on SaaS &
consumer
Advising on product growth/monetization
with companies + communities (Reforge)
Naomi Pilosof Ionita

2. SaaS is a long-term value exchange
between you and your customers...
...it’s about creating value for them,
and being compensated appropriately for that value

3. 3.32%
6.71%
12.70%
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
Acquisition Retention Monetization
Source: Price Intelligently; n= data from 512 SaaS companies
Monetization is 4x More Efficient than Acquisition
Impact on Bottom Line
by Improving Each Lever by 1%

4. Goal = >130% revenue retention

5. How did you decide on your pricing ?

6. “ Honestly, it was pretty arbitrary.
We just picked something. ”

7. “ We made it artificially low;
we didn’t want price to get in the way
of people using it. ”

8. “ We wanted to position ourselves as Premium.
One prospective customer told us:
‘ You’re the Apple of your category.
I need to save budget to afford you ’
— and that was fine by us! ”

9. Know Who You’re Building for
Lesson 1 :
Segment Users by
Needs and
Willingness-to-Pay

10. : Customer Segmentation
Lowest WTP
Value speed
Value extra space
Highest WTP
Uber Pool
Uber X
Uber XL / SUV
Uber Select / Black
“ I need to get from A to B ”

12. Value does not automatically translate to Perceived Value

13. Feature Shock

14. Who are your customers ?
Why do they pay you ?
How much are they willing to pay you ?

15. Establish a Pricing Process
Assign
an owner
● Product Growth
(SMB/Self-serve)
● Sales
(Mid-Market/Ent)
Talk to
customers
● Internal feedback
loops
● Survey methods:
- Conjoint Analysis
- Gabor-Granger
- van Westendorp
Be willing
to experiment
● Don’t be afraid
to raise prices
● Isolating by
geo can help
● This work is
never done

16. More Effective Survey Questions
Distribute 100 points across the features below.
Rate features “must have”, “nice to have”, or
“not necessary”.
Which features would you include in an ideal package?
What annual price would you consider acceptable? What
price would you consider expensive, but still willing to pay?
Below is a list of
features – check off
the ones you want.
[No conversation
about price]
ValueWTP

17. Lesson 2 :
Align Pricing & Packaging
with Building Accretive Value

18. : Rebalancing Pricing & Packaging
Increased upgrade rate by 108%
While increasing upgrade price by 33%
Without impacting customer sentiment

19. • Increase prices / use a
smart natural escalator
• Rebalance sticks & carrots
• Upsell / cross-sell users to
higher-priced plans / additional products
How ?

20. You’re Probably Underpriced :
“ It’s $20… I mean, $200 per month ”

21. Upgrade Levers : Sticks & Carrots
New features
unlocked with
upgrade
Quota limit
forces upgrade

22. Contextual upsells are effective –
user is in high-intent state
and no additional education required
Sticks are Your Value Metrics

23. # Admin Seats
# Equity Grants Disincentivizes usage
# Shareholders Revenue scales with value
Cap Table Management
Revenue doesn’t scale with value
: Picking the Right Value Metric

24. SMB Mid-Market Enterprise Public
Formations
Financings
Liquidity: Tenders, Secondaries
HR & Payroll Integrations
Board Management: Resolutions, Docs
$ As customers grow, they derive more value from Carta $$$$
Support for International Employees
: Picking the Right Premium Features

25. : Rapid Revenue Growth
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
$inARR(Millions)
Years
*Year 1 is from time Carta began selling recurring software. Source: Bessemer Venture Partners

26. : Healthy Revenue Retention
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
$inARR(Millions)
Years
Goal Achieved
Year 1 revenue retention: 125%
Year 2 revenue retention: 140+%
*Year 1 is from time Carta started selling recurring software. Source: Bessemer Venture Partners

27. Lesson 3 :
Personalize Monetization with Predictive Data

28. Very High
High
Low
Very Low
Predictive Analytics – Customer Propensity to Renew
Input Variables Most Predictive
Propensity
Segments

29. Targeted upgrades for
high propensity
Renewal experience for
very low propensity
: Personalized Experiences by Segment
• Reinforce value of
core features
• Build awareness of
premium features
• Offer targeted
promotions/discounts

30. Create predictive audiences — past
actions inform who is likely to perform a
future action
Target personalized messaging & dynamic
offers based on propensity
to convert, upgrade, or renew
: AI-Driven Marketing

31. : Upgrade Campaigns with ClearBrain
Facebook :
Retargeted free users with high propensity
to upgrade:
Conversion up from 4% to 10%
Braze :
Displayed popup for users with
high propensity to upgrade
10% lift in upgrade CTA

32. SMB
Self-Service
Product Team :
- Drives self-service
revenue
- Targets businesses
< 250 employees
: Data-Informed Hand-Offs
Sales Team :
- Upsell leads into
higher ACV customers
Mid-market /
Enterprise
Qualified
leads
based
on data

33. Wrap-Up
2. Align Pricing & Packaging with Building Accretive Value
3. Personalize Monetization with Predictive Data
1. Know Who You’re Building for —
Segment Users by Needs and Willingness-to-Pay

34. THANK YOU…
…NOW GO MAKE MORE MONEY :)