founder-pricing Checked

Finds the price buyers will actually pay. Reads the consumer panel's four price answers per buyer into a Van Westendorp price-sensitivity range (too cheap, a bargain, getting expensive, too expensive), sets it against what competitors really charge and against the CFO's margin, and recommends a price, a price ladder (good / better / best) and an opening offer to test. Use when the user says "how much should I charge", "price this", "is $X too expensive", "pricing strategy", "what price", or after the consumer panel.

founder-pricing

Price is the fastest lever on the margin and the one founders guess most. This

skill sets it from three things you can check: what buyers said, what competitors

charge, and what the business needs to earn.

Tool in this folder:

python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/van_westendorp.py" founder/panel/answers --price 6.50 --out founder/pricing-curve.md

Finds the price buyers will actually pay. Reads the consumer panel's four price answers per buyer into a Van Westendorp price-sensitivity range (too cheap, a bargain, getting expensive, too expensive), sets it against what competitors really charge and against the CFO's margin, and recommends a price, a price ladder (good / better / best) and an opening offer to test. Use when the user says "how much should I charge", "price this", "is $X too expensive", "pricing strategy", "what price", or after the consumer panel.

founder-pricing

Price is the fastest lever on the margin and the one founders guess most. This

skill sets it from three things you can check: what buyers said, what competitors

charge, and what the business needs to earn.

Tool in this folder:

python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/van_westendorp.py" founder/panel/answers --price 6.50 --out founder/pricing-curve.md

Step 1: what buyers said

If /founder-consumer ran, every buyer answered four price questions. Run the

tool on founder/panel/answers (or a CSV with the columns `too_cheap, cheap,

expensive, too_expensive` from real surveys, which beat simulated answers every

time). It reports:

| point | meaning |

| --- | --- |

| PMC | below this, too many think it is too cheap to be good |

| OPP | the price with the least resistance either way |

| IPP | where as many call it a bargain as call it expensive |

| PME | above this, too many will not buy at all |

PMC to PME is the acceptable range. If the panel has not run, say so and offer to

run /founder-consumer --quick first. Do not invent a range.

Step 2: what competitors charge

From founder/competitors.md (or look them up now, from their own public price

pages, with links): the price of the nearest substitutes for the same job. Note

what each price includes, so you compare like with like. A matcha latte is

compared with other matcha lattes and with the coffee it replaces, not with a tea

bag.

Step 3: what the business needs

From founder/numbers.json: the variable cost per unit and the break-even. Run the

CFO's tool at two or three candidate prices to see the margin and break-even at

each:

python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../founder-cfo/unit_economics.py" founder/numbers.json --price 7.00

Step 4: decide

Write founder/pricing.md:

1. **The price**, and why: where it sits in the acceptable range, against the

competitors, and the margin it gives (from the tool, not a guess).

2. **The ladder**, if the business can have one: a good / better / best (size,

bundle, subscription, membership) with a reason to step up each rung.

3. **The opening offer**: an intro price or bonus for launch that does not train

buyers to wait for discounts, with an end date.

4. **What to test with real buyers**: two prices inside the range and how to test

them (two landing pages, a pre-sale at each, A/B on the menu board).

5. The panel's verbatim price objections (top three), so marketing can answer them.