Get Paid with Manny Medina

💵Monetise your AI software with credits — start free on Paid!SaaS pricing has lived in a fantasy world.For 20 years, software got to charge per seat, print margins, and ignore what the real economy has dealt with forever: variable cost, capacity, and brutal competition.This week on Get Paid, Manny Medina brings on Dimi, a pricing strategist from Simon-Kucher, to drag AI pricing back to reality. Hotels, airlines, retail, transportation… industries where pricing is a weapon, not a spreadsheet.They break down what SaaS leaders are missing as agents show up: your cost is now variable, your “seat” metric can actually decline, and cost-plus pricing is a trap that forces you into a race to be the cheapest.Dimi explains why usage pricing often incentives the wrong behaviour, why per-minute pricing is fundamentally broken for voice agents, and why outcome pricing is the right north star but way harder than people admit. He also gets into the uncomfortable truth founders avoid: the best B2B revenue is already “personalised pricing” and we just call it discounting.If you’re building agents, trying to protect margins, or figuring out what to charge when your product has real variable cost, this episode will change how you think.🟢 Links & resources Get Paid.ai → Follow Manny Medina, Founder/CEO of Paid.ai on LinkedIn - → Paid.ai on LinkedIn → Subscribe to AgentTalk (Substack)🟢 Listen on other platforms: → Substack → Apple Podcasts→ SpotifySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

💵Monetise your AI software with credits — start free on Paid.ai.Dharmesh Shah didn’t just build a SaaS company — he helped shape the modern SaaS era.As co-founder of HubSpot, he took the company from zero to public and played a central role in defining how software is built, sold, and priced. Now his focus is on what breaks when AI agents stop assisting humans and start doing the work themselves.In this episode of Get Paid, Dharmesh joins Manny Medina for a direct conversation about the next platform shift — and why it’s closer to the dawn of the internet than another product cycle. Manny is the host of Get Paid and the founder/CEO of Paid.ai, focused on how AI companies price, package, and monetise agent-driven products.They unpack why reasoning models changed everything, why “AI will kill SaaS” is the wrong question, and why the real disruption is the abstraction layer moving up. From the limits of vibe coding to why focus still beats building everything yourself, the conversation goes straight at the uncomfortable decisions founders are avoiding.Dharmesh also shares how HubSpot is making the transition for real: throwing out the roadmap, resetting parts of the culture, and running HubSpot Next like a startup inside the company to build agent-native businesses that don’t fit neatly into the core org.On monetisation, he’s blunt: why seats still matter, why credits are inevitable, why outcome-based pricing isn’t always the right answer — and what happens to software economics when agents replace work instead of enabling it.If you’re building AI products, rethinking pricing, or wondering whether your SaaS model survives an agent-first world, this episode will challenge your assumptions.🟢 Links & resourcesTry Paid.aiFollow Manny Medina, Founder/CEO of Paid.ai on LinkedIn.Paid.ai on LinkedIn.Subscribe to AgentTalk (Substack)🟢 Listen on other platforms:Apple PodcastsSpotifyYoutubeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dan Griggs, CFO at Intercom with extensive experience in pricing strategies, dives into the shift from traditional seat-based pricing to innovative outcome-based pricing shaped by AI. He reveals how Intercom launched their AI customer service agent, Fin, and why pricing per resolution at 99 cents revolutionized their revenue model. Griggs shares insights on aligning sales incentives, simplifying customer trials, and the economic implications of AI-driven service. This shift not only transformed their operations but also inspired a broader industry rethink on software monetization.

Maria Colacurcio built Smartsheet into a Pacific Northwest giant. Now, as CEO of Syndio, she's betting the company on a pivot from SaaS to agentic AI. And she's not looking back.In this episode, Maria walks Manny through the launch of Syndi, an AI pay expert that transforms how companies make compensation decisions. Instead of annual pay equity audits that send CFOs scrambling for remediation budgets, Syndi embeds fairness as a constraint in every offer, every promotion, every pay decision. The result: companies save millions in payroll waste while actually improving equity outcomes.Maria is candid about what "burning the boats" actually looks like. She discusses the internal communication challenges of asking employees to commoditize their own product, why some attrition is inevitable during a pivot, and how she keeps her board aligned when engagement scores are dropping and Blind is lighting up. Her solution to board prep? A custom GPT loaded with her deck, messaging, and each board member's particular interests, so meetings become strategic conversations rather than rabbit holes.The episode also covers TD SYNNEX's early adoption of agent-powered HR, why the EU Pay Transparency Directive will force multinationals to explain their pay decisions, and how Syndi tracks the network effect of compensation choices over time. Revealing, for example, that 28% of "ex-OpenAI premium" hires leave as non-regrettable attrition. For any CEO wondering whether to bolt AI onto existing systems or rebuild from the ground up, Maria's answer is clear: your faster, more early-stage competitors will quickly overcome you if you don't go native.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In an insightful conversation, the engineering team discusses the realities of building an AI agent company. They share how customer feedback drives product evolution, including unexpected challenges once agents hit production. The team explores debate over risk-taking in innovation and the importance of decision ownership. They also reveal the psychology of credits in feature adoption, strategies for predictable billing, and innovations like self-serve onboarding. The behind-the-scenes insights provide a unique perspective on navigating the complexities of AI development.

Ariel Harmoko, Founder and CEO of Artifact AI and a former racing champion, shares his journey from the track to the tech world. He discusses the challenges of creating an AI-first accounting platform with just two team members. Ariel reveals his strategy for landing clients through cold-calling and why he competes against BPOs instead of software. He emphasizes accuracy over speed, outlines his innovative pricing models, and predicts a future dominated by AI-driven firms, urging founders to develop their evaluation systems.

Matthew Scullion, Founder and CEO of Matillion, a leading data productivity company, shares his journey of pivoting his thriving enterprise to embrace AI. He discusses the creation of Maia, an AI-powered data engineering team, formed within Matillion to stay ahead of the disruptive wave of AI. Scullion highlights the importance of agility, using a Series A-style approach to foster innovation and quickly validate their product with key customers through a unique lighthouse program. This shift redefined their target market and opened new revenue streams.

In this discussion, seasoned software executive Dave Kellogg shares his insights on the evolution of SaaS towards incorporating strong AI components. He delves into outcome-based pricing, emphasizing the importance of customer perception and the predictability it offers. Kellogg also discusses innovative deal structures like rollover credits to enhance adoption and aligns sales commissions with customer success. He warns about the complexities in revenue recognition and advocates focusing on gross profit dollars over mere percentages, giving valuable advice for budding AI companies.

Nicolas Sharp, Co-founder and CEO of the AI-native CRM Attio, shares insights on leveraging generational tech shifts. He discusses the crucial pivot from a niche investor CRM to a platform that empowers modern sales teams. Nicolas highlights how traditional CRM systems create a false dichotomy, emphasizing the need for a flexible, user-friendly solution. He delves into the impact of LLMs, the importance of high-resolution data for automation, and Attio's innovative approach to extensibility in their marketplace.

In a captivating discussion, Pat Grady, a partner at Sequoia Capital known for investing in AI and enterprise companies, reveals key insights into AI startups' success. He argues that building an AI company is mostly about traditional fundamentals and that trust is often overlooked. Pat highlights how the best AI products build user confidence through transparency and persistence, contrasting effective companies with those chasing fleeting 'vibe revenue.' He also predicts a shift toward outcome-based pricing models, emphasizing the founder's relentless execution as the most significant competitive advantage.