SaaS · September 2026
SaaS growth flattening? 5 talks on the levers that work
Why SaaS growth stalls near $1M, why cutting the price makes it worse, how to find the price people will pay, and what buyers now check.
When SaaS growth flattens, the first instinct is to cut the price. It feels safe. More customers, from the product you already have.
By Rob Walling's numbers it is also one of the most expensive moves available. Neil Magnuson cut a $99 plan to $19 and watched lifetime value fall from $683 to $68, because the cheaper plan brought in people who leave. The business needed roughly 11 times the customers just to stand still.
The levers that work are slower and less comfortable. Find out what people will actually pay. Stop being the bottleneck in your own company. Build something a competitor with AI would struggle to rebuild. A discount feels safer than any of them.
In this playlist
6 reasons SaaS founders stall at $1M, and how to get past it
Diagnose before you change anything. Julian Marzouki's 6 patterns that hold a company at its current size, starting with the founder who is still its best operator.
7 min read7 min listen
Why lowering your SaaS price can shrink lifetime value 10x
The lever founders reach for first, and a case where it ran backwards: an 80% price cut that needed 11 times the customers to stand still.
7 min read7 min listen
How to find the price people will actually pay
The alternative to guessing. A 1970s survey of 4 questions that maps where your price sits, and the sampling problem the talk never mentions.
7 min read6 min listen
What SaaS buyers want in 2026: 5 moats that survive AI
The question private equity buyers now ask before making an offer, and 5 moats that answer it. Best answered years before you plan to sell.
8 min read7 min listen
Adding AI to your SaaS without shipping a sparkle button
Where the build time goes. Rob Walling's bar is an AI feature that saves the user 15 minutes or more, and a sparkle-icon text box rarely clears it.
9 min read9 min listen