Pricing is one of the nightmares of anyone selling anything for the first time. It is genuinely hard for less tangible things. Physical products are fairly easy; digital ones get complicated.

1. Understand the economic value you deliver

Not "what my software does", but "how much money or time this saves or generates for the customer".

If your SaaS automates something an employee would spend two hours a day on, that is worth roughly R$2-3k a month to the company. Your theoretical price ceiling is right there.

2. Have 10 to 15 conversations with potential customers

Not a survey. Actual conversations. Ask:

  • How do you solve this today?
  • What does that cost you right now, in time and money?
  • If a tool existed that solved X, what would make sense to pay?

You are calibrating perceived value.

3. Simplified Van Westendorp

In those same conversations, ask the four questions:

  • What price would be so cheap it would make you doubt the quality?
  • What price would be expensive, but you would pay it if it worked?
  • What price would be far too much, out of the question?
  • What price would be a bargain?

With ten responses you already have a defensible range.

4. Build three plans with anchoring

The middle plan is the one you want to sell. The expensive one exists to make the middle look reasonable. The cheap one exists so you do not lose the people still deciding.

For example: R$97 / R$197 / R$397.

5. Launch with a price and test

The solo founder's mistake is optimising price before having ten customers.

Launch, charge, and only adjust when you get a real signal: either a lot of price objections, or conversion so good it means you are cheap.

With fifteen conversations and three plans you are already doing better than 90% of SaaS products, which price on pure intuition or by copying a competitor.

References: Nagle's The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing, and Rebecca Sadwick's article on pricing products in Forbes.