a) Private Equity & Investors: Where Pricing Creates or Destroys Value
You’re not buying revenue multiples. You’re buying EBITDA improvement potential. And pricing is the fastest lever to pull, when you know where to pull it.
The Diligence Blind Spots That Cost Millions
We’ve sat through hundreds of management presentations where “strong pricing” meant “we haven’t raised prices in three years and hope you don’t notice.” We know how to separate real pricing power from accounting fiction in days, not months.
Post-Close Value Creation That Actually Compounds
Your 100-day plan calls for pricing optimization delivering $5M EBITDA improvement. Great. Who’s going to implement it? The portfolio company team that’s never done value-based pricing? The consultant who’s leaving after delivering a strategy deck?
We don’t just identify the opportunity. We work with your portfolio company operators to build the capability, from the pricing frameworks, discount governance, margin analytics, sales enablement, so value creation accelerates through the hold period, not just year one.
Exit Readiness Pricing That Moves Multiples
We help portfolio companies demonstrate pricing discipline from consistent realization and improving mix, to expanding margins, and that justifies premium valuation. Because a buyer who sees sustainable pricing power pays more than a buyer who sees one-time margin expansion.
What We Bring to Your Portfolio:
- Rapid opportunity assessments (days, not weeks) during diligence
- Embedded pricing capability building in portfolio companies
- Cross-portfolio playbooks from manufacturing to tech to services
- Board-ready reporting that translates pricing work into EBITDA impact
- Exit positioning that demonstrates pricing as value driver, not risk
b) Manufacturing & Industrials: Where Pricing Is Complex and Margin Is Everything
Your customers negotiate everything. Your sales team has been giving “market-driven” discounts for 20 years. Your distributors have more pricing power than you do. And somehow, despite revenue growth, margins keep shrinking.
Sound familiar?
The Manufacturing Pricing Trap
Meanwhile, raw material costs swing 30% and you’re terrified to pass it through because “customers will leave.” So margin erodes quarter after quarter while you work harder for less profit.
Why Industrial Pricing Is Different
Unlike SaaS companies with their tidy subscription models, you’re dealing with:
- Complex bill-of-materials driving cost volatility
- Long-term contracts locking in outdated pricing
- Distribution channels with misaligned incentives
- Custom engineering creating unpredictable costs
- Freight and logistics eating margin invisibly
- Legacy customers demanding "relationship" pricing
Generic pricing consultants don’t understand this world. We do. Because we’ve operated in it.
What We Fix:
Cost-Plus Thinking in a Value World
Your pricing is “cost + 35%” but you have no idea if customers would pay cost + 60% for faster delivery, better quality, or technical support. We help you understand value drivers so you stop leaving margin on the table.
Channel Conflict Destroying Margin
Your direct team undercuts distributors to hit quota. Distributors undercut each other to move volume. Customers know it and play you off each other. We help you build channel pricing architecture that aligns incentives instead of destroying them.
Contract Pricing That Locks You In
You signed a three-year deal at $X per unit. Raw materials jumped 25%. Now you’re fulfilling orders at breakeven (or worse) for two more years. We help you build escalation clauses, surcharge mechanisms, and contract structures that protect margin when costs move.
Hidden Costs Killing "Profitable" Products
Your product-level P&L says Product A is 40% margin. But that doesn’t include the three engineers who spend half their time on customization, the warehouse space for slow-moving variants, or the freight you absorb to stay competitive. We rebuild cost-to-serve models so you know what’s actually profitable.
Industries We've Helped:
- Industrial distribution and MRO
- Specialty chemicals and materials
- Engineered components and systems
- Industrial services and maintenance
- Food and beverage manufacturing
- Building products and construction materials
c) Technology & SaaS: Where Your Model Is Your Moat (Or Your Anchor)
You scaled from $5M to $50M ARR on land-and-expand. Congrats. Now NDR is slipping, expansion revenue is flat, and nobody can explain why deals are taking longer to close or why discounting crept up 8 points last quarter.
The SaaS Pricing Lifecycle Crisis
Early stage: You priced to get customers and prove product-market fit. That was the right call then. Growth stage: You’re hitting scale inefficiencies including wrong customers, poor packaging, weak expansion motions. Now: Your Series C pricing model is constraining your Series D growth, and nobody wants to admit the pricing that got you here won’t get you there.
Why Tech Pricing Breaks at Scale
Your Tiers Don't Drive Expansion
Customers land in “Professional” and never upgrade because your “Enterprise” tier is just Professional plus features they don’t need. You have no expansion motion beyond “add more seats,” and that only works until the department using you stops growing.
Discounting Is Out of Control
Your pricing page says $100/user. Your average deal closes at $72/user. Sales says “everyone expects a discount.” Finance is furious. You’re leaving millions on the table because nobody enforces floor pricing or teaches reps value-based selling.
Usage-Based Pricing Seemed Like a Good Idea
You switched to consumption pricing to reduce friction. Now revenue is unpredictable, customers optimize usage to minimize cost, and you can’t forecast because nobody knows if this quarter will be +15% or -8%.
Multi-Product Chaos
You acquired two companies and launched three new products. Now you have five pricing models, seven SKUs, and sales can’t figure out what to sell to whom. Customers are confused. Reps are paralyzed. Nobody’s buying the bundle.
What We Fix:
Packaging That Drives Expansion Revenue
We redesign your tiers around customer outcomes and growth paths, not feature checklists. So customers naturally expand as they grow instead of getting everything they need in the cheapest tier.
Value Metric That Scales With Customer Success
Per-seat pricing works until it doesn’t. We help you find the metric that aligns your revenue with customer value, so they’re happy to pay more as they get more value, not trying to minimize seats or usage.
Discount Governance That Sales Actually Follows
We don’t just tell sales to “stop discounting.” We show them how disciplined pricing increases their comp, build approval workflows that prevent margin erosion, and create value-selling frameworks so they can defend price.
Portfolio Pricing That Makes Sense
Multiple products should reinforce each other, not compete or confuse. We create suite logic, bundle strategy, and cross-sell frameworks so your portfolio becomes a moat, not a maze.
Verticals We Know:
- EdTech: Student SIS, LMS, admissions, institutional SaaS
- FinTech: Payment processing, lending platforms, financial services software
- HealthTech: EHR, patient engagement, practice management, care coordination
- Horizontal SaaS: Productivity, collaboration, developer tools, infrastructure
d) Education & Mission-Driven Organizations: Where Value Isn't Just Financial
You’re balancing mission and margin. Pricing too high excludes the people you’re trying to serve. Pricing too low means you can’t sustain operations or invest in impact. And every pricing conversation becomes a debate about values, not value.
The Mission-Margin Tightrope
You’re not trying to maximize profit. But you can’t fulfill your mission if you’re hemorrhaging cash or stuck in a cycle of grant dependency. Sustainable pricing isn’t about greed, it’s about ensuring you’re still here to serve your community in five years.
Where Mission-Driven Pricing Goes Wrong
Underpricing Because It "Feels" Right
You charge $X because that’s what “seems fair” or because a founder decided it 10 years ago. But you’ve never asked whether your customers would pay more for better outcomes, whether you’re subsidizing the wrong segment, or whether you could serve more people by charging those who can afford it more.
One-Size-Fits-All When Your Community Isn't
You have the same price for the well-resourced suburban district and the Title I rural school. The nonprofit with a $50M endowment and the nonprofit running on volunteers. You’re overcharging those who can’t afford it and undercharging those who can, which means you serve fewer people overall.
Grant-Dependent Revenue Model
You’ve built your operations around grant cycles. When grants dry up, you’re scrambling. Sustainable mission requires sustainable economics which means pricing your services so you’re not dependent on perpetual fundraising to survive.
What We Help With:
Value-Based Pricing That Serves Mission
We help you understand what different segments can and will pay, then design pricing that enables broad access while ensuring financial sustainability. Sliding scale structures, volume tiers, and ability-to-pay models that work.
Segmentation That Aligns Price With Impact
Not all your customers have the same resources. We help you identify segments where higher pricing is sustainable (and expected), freeing up resources to serve those who need subsidized access. So you expand reach without sacrificing margin.
Business Model Diversification
Relying on one funding source is risky. We help you build pricing strategies that mix earned revenue, grants, institutional contracts, and individual contributions into a sustainable model that weathers funding environment changes.
Transparency That Builds Trust
Mission-driven organizations often struggle with pricing transparency. We help you communicate pricing in ways that reinforce mission, explaining how pricing enables access, sustains impact, and funds innovation, so stakeholders understand and support your model.
Organizations We've Worked With:
- K-12 and Higher Education institutions
- EdTech
- Healthcare and social services nonprofits
- Membership associations and professional development
- Government and community organizations
e) Business & Professional Services: Where Time Isn't Value
You bill by the hour because that’s how it’s always been done. But your clients don’t care about hours, they care about outcomes. And you’re leaving massive margins on the table because you’re pricing your time, not their results.
The Hourly Billing Trap
You’re efficient, so projects take less time. Which means you make less money for delivering better outcomes. Meanwhile, your competitor is slower and less skilled but bills more because they’re inefficient. You’re literally being punished for being good at your job.
Where Professional Services Pricing Breaks
Scope Creep Is Killing Margin
The project was supposed to take 40 hours. It took 73. Some was necessary scope expansion. Some was client indecision. Some was your team being nice and “just doing a few extra things.” You can’t bill for it, so the margin evaporates.
You're Afraid to Raise Rates
Your rates have been the same for three years because “clients will leave.” Meanwhile, your costs increased 20%, but you’ve convinced yourself you’re too expensive even though you’re probably too cheap. You’re working harder for less profit because you’re scared to have the conversation.
Discounting Undermines Your Value
You charge $250/hour. Except for that client who pays $180. And that one who’s at $200. And the “strategic” client at $160 because they promised volume (they didn’t deliver). Now your average realization is $195 and nobody respects your rate card.
You Can't Forecast or Scale
How much revenue will you do next quarter? No idea—depends on which clients need what, who’s available, whether that big project finally kicks off. You can’t scale because your business model is “how many hours can we work,” not “how much value can we create.”
What We Fix:
Value-Based Pricing for Outcomes
We help you transition from hourly billing to pricing based on what you deliver—the cost reduction, revenue increase, risk mitigation, strategic advantage. So you get paid for results, not time.
Fixed-Fee Project Scoping
We build scoping frameworks that clearly define deliverables, change order thresholds, and pricing structures so projects stay profitable instead of bleeding margin through undocumented scope expansion.
Retainer Models That Create Predictability
Stop the feast-famine revenue cycle. We help you design retainer and subscription models that create recurring revenue while giving clients predictable access to your expertise.
Tiered Service Offerings
Not every client needs your full capability. We help you create tiered service levels such as premium, standard, self-service, so you can serve different segments profitably instead of giving everyone custom work at one price.
Services We've Helped Price:
- Management and strategy consulting
- Marketing and creative agencies
- Accounting and financial advisory
- Legal services and compliance
- Engineering and technical consulting
- HR and organizational development
