Pricing unscripted with Michael Hoy (CEO, Atlas) and Matthew Gregory (CEO, Autonomy)

Matthew Gregory (CEO of Autonomy, former pricing lead at Heroku/Salesforce, worked on Azure) sits down with Michael Hoy for an honest conversation about what founders get wrong about pricing.

The Big Insight: Stop obsessing over the numerator (the dollar amount). Real pricing is about the denominator—the structure. Usage-based? Tiered? How's it packaged? What's the upgrade path? That's where the strategy lives.

Key Takeaways:
✅ Pricing is a continuous feedback loop - You're going to get it wrong initially. Build for flexibility.
✅ Matthew's contrarian take on usage-based pricing - Even though Autonomy uses it, he's "fairly anti-usage based pricing." Why? Customers don't want to see your exposed cost structure. They want predictability, not to be nickeled and dimed while experimenting.
✅ The Four Ps Framework - Product (packaging), Price (the number), Place (where you sell), Promotion (using pricing for customer acquisition). AI startups should focus on the Promotion axis.
✅ For AI founders: Stop trying to find the "right" price. Pick a significant figure (1-9), decide how many zeros, and move forward. Focus on customer acquisition while costs are dropping rapidly.
✅ Value-based pricing wins - Both seller and buyer are happy. Usage-based can kill adoption because customers think twice before using your product.

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