147. Monetization Strategy & Why Price Trumps Product (Madhavan Ramanujam)

Madhavan Ramanujam of Simon-Kutcher & Partners joins Nick to discuss Monetization Strategy & Why Price Trumps Product. In this episode, we cover: What's the backstory and how did you develope this monetization expertise? What VC firms and/or investors have you worked with? What's the most common missteps that innovators make? What are the 4 types of innovation fails? I want to talk about your three key rules for monetizing new products: Having the WTP conversation early, Investigating how to charge not just what to charge and not settling for one-size fits all... Let's start w/ the WTP conversation, walk us through this point and the three questions one should ask? Essentially, are you suggesting that startups run a conjoint analysis to see what features customers want and how much they'll pay or is it more than that? How do the results inform the pricing strategy? Is this the Van Westendorp methodology, if not, how's it different? Talk more about the second rule... Investigating how to charge, not just what to charge. The final rule is: Don't settle for one-size-fits-all... walk us through your point here. form factor, application, segment This is controversial in the venture space where many investors are looking for one business model across all customers... what's your response to VCs here? How do you apply your methodology in situations with a nascent market... where customers may not fully understand their needs, the problems they will experience or the solutions available? Final thoughts and advice for startups that are creating a new product? Any words of advice for investors that are assessing startups very early on?   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.