Zero-to-One Pricing Strategy for SaaS Startups

The Three Pricing Archetypes

1. Seat-Based Pricing

Best for: collaboration tools, team productivity

• Pros: predictable revenue, easy to understand
• Cons: discourages adoption, creates "shadow IT"
• Example: Slack, Notion, Linear

2. Usage-Based Pricing

Best for: API products, infrastructure, data platforms

• Pros: aligns cost with value, low barrier to entry
• Cons: unpredictable revenue, hard to forecast
• Example: Stripe, Twilio,