SaaS Metrics School

4 SaaS P&L Metrics That Break When You Kill Per-Seat Pricing

Listen Later

The pricing model that built the SaaS industry is being replaced in real time. Is your finance team ready for what it does to your core metrics?

In episode #374, Ben Murray breaks down the four SaaS P&L metrics that break when per-seat pricing dies. Public tech leaders are already shifting fast. ServiceNow now drives 50% of net new business from non-seat-based pricing, Workday is reporting hundreds of millions in AI ARR, and GitHub is moving Copilot to usage-based billing. If you are a SaaS CFO or finance leader still modeling on a single blended gross margin, your benchmarks are about to stop working.

  • Why the AI product gross margin sits around 52% and how a 30% revenue mix shift can compress your blended margin by 10 to 15 points
  • How AI COGS scale directly with product usage, breaking the near-zero incremental cost assumption traditional SaaS finance was built on
  • Why one blended LTV no longer works once you have heavy, medium, and light AI usage cohorts, and how to rebuild LTV to CAC by cohort
  • How CAC payback period shifts when gross margin is no longer a single number across the customer base
  • The new frameworks finance teams need to model hybrid subscription plus usage and outcome-based pricing before the board notices the margin compression

    • Tune in to get ahead of the pricing shift before your next forecast and board deck go out.

    Resources Mentioned
    • Ben's blog post on the SaaS pricing revolution: https://www.thesaascfo.com/saas-per-seat-pricing/
    • Ben's AI course for SaaS finance leaders: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/ai-finance-metrics-saas
      • ...more
      View all episodesView all episodes
      Download on the App Store
      SaaS Metrics SchoolBy Ben Murray
      • 4.6
      • 4.6
      • 4.6
      • 4.6
      • 4.6

      4.6

      11 ratings

      More shows like SaaS Metrics School

      View all
      The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

      The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

      537 Listeners

      The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors by SaaStr

      The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

      175 Listeners

      Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

      Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

      2,354 Listeners

      Founders by David Senra

      Founders

      2,171 Listeners

      Equity by TechCrunch, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, Sean O'Kane, Theresa Loconsolo

      Equity

      341 Listeners

      All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg by All-In Podcast, LLC

      All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

      10,182 Listeners

      The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) by Ascension

      The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)

      61,892 Listeners

      Business Breakdowns by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

      Business Breakdowns

      347 Listeners

      AI + a16z by a16z

      AI + a16z

      34 Listeners

      The SaaS CFO by Ben Murray

      The SaaS CFO

      3 Listeners