In this episode, I talked with Garrick Van Buren about pricing as value creation and why every price is really set against the status quo of “doing nothing,” meaning you must outcompete the comfort of not fixing a problem. We break down value as transformation from current to future state and how to quantify it through revenue gains, cost savings, time savings, and especially retention/churn, with examples like a real estate brokerage commission tool where agent retention drove the true value. Garrick shares his “value stack,” customer rediscovery interviews to uncover unpriced value and unmet needs, and a “How’s My Driving” approach to re-segment customers and refine positioning. We also discuss AI, speed-to-value premiums, services vs product tradeoffs, incremental pricing rollouts, and why founders must remove their own money emotions from pricing using metrics like percentage of annual revenue and risk mitigation.

00:00 Pricing Against Status Quo

04:34 Quantifying Value Shifts

06:24 Revenue Retention and Churn

08:35 The Value Stack Framework

09:59 Real Estate CFO Case Study

14:17 Net New Value With AI

17:52 Customer Rediscovery Calls

19:56 Unpriced Value and Missing Offers

21:31 Services Strategy and Time to Value

23:21 AI as New KPI

24:41 Niching and Positioning

25:01 Customer Rediscovery Buckets

27:03 Pricing Power Signals

29:18 Incremental Price Rollouts

33:02 AI Discounts Debate

34:26 Speed to Value Premium

39:23 Jobs to Be Done Lens

42:28 Detach Emotions from Pricing

45:40 Risk Transfer and Credibility

Connect with Garrick:

• https://forstarters.substack.com

• https://linkedin.com/in/garrickvanburen

• https://pricingfromthestart.com

Connect with Raul:

• Work with Raul: https://dogoodwork.io/apply

• Free Growth Resources: https://dogoodwork.io/free-growth-resources

• Connect with Raul on LinkedIn (DMs open): https://www.linkedin.com/in/dogoodwork/