Develpreneur: Become a Better Developer and Entrepreneur Minimal Viable Pricing: How to Stop Guessing and Start Learning (with Dan Balcauski)
Minimal viable pricing is the fastest way to stop debating what your product should cost and start learning what customers will actually pay for. In my interview with Dan Balcauski, founder and Chief Pricing Officer at Product Tranquility, we talked about how early-stage teams can set pricing that's "good enough" to sell, validate value, and iterate—without getting stuck chasing the perfect number.
Pricing can feel risky because it shapes perception, positioning, and revenue. But Dan's message is practical: you don't need perfect pricing to move forward—you need minimal viable pricing that creates clear decisions and real feedback loops.
Minimal viable pricing isn't "cheap pricing." It's "clear pricing" that helps you test value and drive decisions.
About Dan BalcauskiDan Balcauski is the founder and Chief Pricing Officer at Product Tranquility, where he helps high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products. A TopTal-certified Top 3% Product Management Professional, Dan also teaches in Kellogg Executive Education's Product Strategy coursework. Over the last 15 years, he has led products across the full lifecycle—from concept incubation to launch, platform transitions, maintenance, and end-of-life—across both consumer and B2B markets. Before Product Tranquility, he served as Head of Product at LawnStarter and as a Principal Product Strategist at SolarWinds following its $4B acquisition.
What "minimal viable pricing" actually meansDan's approach starts with a mindset shift: early-stage companies rarely fail because their initial price was off by 10–20%. They fail because they haven't found a repeatable customer problem, a clear value promise, or a reliable way to acquire customers.
Minimal viable pricing means:
- You set a price you can defend.
- You package it in a way customers can understand.
- You use real conversations and real deals to refine it.
It's pricing as a learning tool—not a spreadsheet exercise.
Minimal viable pricing starts with your "free option"One of the most actionable parts of the discussion was Dan's breakdown of freemium vs free trial—and why it matters so much for minimal viable pricing.
A free trial creates urgency. There's a natural deadline, which forces customers to evaluate value and decide. A freemium model can work, but it often creates a huge pool of users who never engage deeply enough to convert.
If your goal is to learn quickly, trials often generate clearer signals:
- Who gets value fast?
- What feature set drives adoption?
- What objections stop the purchase?
Minimal viable pricing works best when your go-to-market motion creates real decisions—not endless "maybe later."
Trial length: don't confuse "short" with "effective"There's a trend toward shorter trials (like 7 days), but Dan's point is simple: a short clock doesn't help if your customer can't realistically experience value in that window.
In B2B especially, onboarding delays, competing priorities, and internal approvals can chew up days instantly. A minimal viable pricing approach asks: What's the shortest trial that still allows a motivated customer to succeed?
If you're selling to teams, the answer is often longer than you think.
Use minimal viable pricing to clarify positioningDan also shared a framing that sticks: are you selling a Timex or a Rolex? In other words, are you competing on affordability and simplicity—or premium value and outcomes?
Minimal viable pricing isn't just about the number. It's also about:
- The story your pricing tells
- The kind of customer you attract
- The expectations you set around results and support
You don't need a dozen plans to communicate this. You need clarity.
If customers can't tell who your product is for from the pricing page, your "pricing problem" might actually be a positioning problem.
The goal: learn faster, not argue longerMinimal viable pricing gives you a way to move forward without pretending you have perfect information. Start with something simple, sell it, listen hard, and iterate.
If you want a practical takeaway from Dan's perspective, it's this: pricing is one of your best feedback loops. Use it early. Use it intentionally. And don't let the hunt for "perfect" delay the real work—helping customers win.
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