Ryan NisbetOperations, Delphi · Operations at Delphi

Madhavan Ramanujam: Why Hope Is Not a Pricing Strategy

12 May 2026 · 0 min

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Madhavan Ramanujam spent two years building a product before testing whether anyone would pay for it. He argues founders mistake customer interest for demand: people say they like your sparkling water until you mention the $10 price tag. Pricing must be part of product-market fit testing from the start, not added later.

We worked on the product for 2 years without no idea of some— whether someone would actually pay for this. That seems so wasted. Many founders, when you talk about product market fit, they would say, yeah, we tested the product for making sure there's a fit in the market and we are developing the right product. I mean, someone comes and asks me, do you like this sparkling water? I like it. Do you like it at $10? The whole conversation is different. So if you don't put pricing as part of your product market test, you're often hearing what you want to hear.