♖ Going All-In Again

Hi Friends,

I have some exciting news to share with you.

After a year of advising, I'm going back to full-time.

I'm joining Pricing I/O as VP of Growth, where I'll lead sales and marketing.

TL;DR - Pricing I/O helps software companies stop guessing at pricing. 400+ clients, 98% satisfaction rate, 15x ROI. They actually implement strategies instead of just making black-box recommendations.

This decision has been months in the making. It’s a full-circle moment.

And you are the first ones to know about it.

My first day is Monday.

The Full Circle

In 2019, we hired Marcos, Founder & CEO of Pricing I/O, while I was running strategy at Mercatus.

We were growing steadily but pricing like amateurs. We deployed a common pricing strategy I dubbed "Battleship Pricing"—randomly picking numbers and hoping they'd work.

Marcos (former head of pricing at Vista Equity Partners and author of Street Pricing) didn't just improve our pricing; he taught me how to develop internal pricing muscle that kept growing.

3 key breakthroughs created a lasting impact during our collaboration:

1. We stopped guessing and started listening. I didn't realize you could actually ask customers about pricing. We talked to and surveyed dozens of customers and prospects about their perception of value, willingness to pay, and feature priorities. It revealed we were undercharging for capabilities they valued most and overcomplicating features they seldom used.
   

2. We established a data foundation that truly mattered. No more pricing chaos. We tracked product usage, CRM, accounting, and discount rate data by sales rep and discovered that our top performers did something entirely different. We used this data to overhaul our entire sales process.
   

3. We mastered the 'give to get' principle. If a client wants a discount, we trade it for a case study, referral, or longer contract. This approach not only protected margins but also sped up deals and increased our overall company valuation.

The outcome: We doubled our growth in just one year.

But more importantly, what we learned during that 3-month engagement compounded over the next three years, culminating in our 9-figure acquisition with State Street a few years later. It was a capability that continued to pay dividends.

Fast forward to today: For the past 8 months, I've been advising Pricing I/O on their go-to-market motions. Working behind the scenes has given me a front-row seat to how they have evolved and has reinforced everything I experienced as their client five years ago.

Why This, Why Now

3 things made this decision inevitable:

1. Work directly with a CEO I admire. Marcos is a true missionary leader, obsessed with the software pricing craft and setting an impossibly high standard for delivering wow to clients. You won't find anyone who cares more deeply about their clients' success.
   

2. Lead a team I genuinely enjoy working with. This team is special. It’s the winning zone culture where people care about impact over metrics. I have yet to hear the words "billable hours" uttered once. I feel incredibly lucky to get to lead them.
   

3. Partner with the fastest-growing software companies. This was the kicker. I can’t believe I get inside access to how the best software companies actually think about strategy, monetization and go-to-market. Especially now, as AI forces everyone to rethink traditional license-based pricing models. We're witnessing a monumental shift from traditional seat-based licensing to complex output & outcome-based models.

Also, Zohra (wife) helped me point out something she noticed: "Of all your consulting clients, Pricing I/O never felt like work to you. You actually enjoy it."

She was right.

Plus, more time in San Diego doesn't exactly hurt the decision.

SPONSOR

What This Means for The Moat?

Nothing changes here.

Marcos actually encouraged me to keep writing and sharing the good and the bad. If anything, this gives me endless real-world experiments and lessons to explore with you.

Expect more stories from the trenches of scaling a mission-driven company. What I am thinking about and more.

We're also working on some exciting projects that you'll be the first to hear about and will ask for your support.

Wish me luck.
—Ali

P.S. If you're a software leader (or know of one) wrestling with pricing, let me know. I'd love to share what we're seeing across hundreds of companies.

About Me: I'm Ali, a former tech exec and newly minted VP of Growth at Pricing I/O. Come follow my journey on LinkedIn.