First-time founders often underprice from fear of being seen as a fraud, rooted in self-worth issues. This creates a structural problem: low margins kill growth and profitability. Fixing it later is brutal but necessary.
The next thing that we, that we'll look at, which is terrifying for the founder. And I know that because it was terrifying for me is the pricing strategy, right? And it's usually one of the biggest levers. And you ask that question, right? Like, oh, if someone bought your business, what would they do? And so many, they're like, oh, they'd raise prices. I'm like, well, why aren't we raising prices then? You know? And it's, and it's not even like this, you know, drive to get every last penny out of your customers. It's really because, you know, I think there's a real, there's a real correlation between self-worth as a founder and insecurity, especially as a first-time founder and like, am I good enough to charge the price that I know I need to charge? What if there's a bug? What if someone gets mad? They're going to think I'm a fraud. I only got 8 customers, you know, whatever, like all these stories we tell ourselves. And the problem is that, you know, then we carry that as we try to scale the company and we realize that your, you know, your gross margins aren't where they need to be. And it's just a function of, you know, insecure pricing from 2 years ago, but it's super nerve-wracking to go correct that.
Get a mentor as soon as possible — and make sure it’s a mentor in your space.
Keith Gillispie: Why Most New Investors Fail & How to Avoid the Common Traps #250 | SaaS District
