The playbook for usage-based growth
Frameworks, case studies, and tactical guides from teams who've made the shift from seats to outcomes. No fluff—just what actually works.
The Economics of Free: A CFO's Guide to Trial Pricing
Free trials are the most expensive customer acquisition channel you're not measuring. This guide breaks down how to think about trial costs, when to invest in high-intent users, and how to build budget controls that protect margins without killing conversion.
- How to calculate true cost-per-trial
- The 4 signals that predict conversion
- Budget cap strategies that do not hurt UX
- Building the business case for usage-based
- Metrics your board actually cares about
From the field
Real results from teams who've implemented usage-based pricing and cost controls. These aren't vanity metrics—they're the numbers that matter to finance.
Cut trial costs 73% while increasing conversions
"We were bleeding money on free trials. Power users were consuming 10x the resources of eventual converters. Cadence helped us identify the signal in the noise—now we invest heavily in high-intent users and gracefully cap the rest."
Shifted from seats to usage and grew ARR 2.4x
"Seat-based pricing was leaving money on the table. Our power users were getting enterprise value at SMB prices. Usage-based let us capture that value while actually lowering the barrier for new customers."
Achieved profitability by fixing unit economics
"We had negative unit economics on 40% of our user base and didn't even know it. Once we could see cost at the feature level, the fixes were obvious. Some features we repriced, others we optimized, a few we killed entirely."
Mental models
The frameworks top growth teams use to think about pricing, unit economics, and customer acquisition. Understanding these will change how you build.
The Conversion Timing Framework
Not all usage is equal. A user who hits your core value prop 3x in their first session is worth 10x more than one who's casually browsing. Learn how to identify high-intent signals and allocate resources accordingly.
Unit Economics That Actually Work
LTV:CAC ratios are table stakes. The real question is: what's your cost to serve by cohort, by feature, by customer segment? And more importantly—which customers are you subsidizing?
Pricing as a Growth Lever
Your pricing model shapes user behavior more than any feature you'll ever build. Usage-based pricing isn't just about capturing value—it's about aligning incentives between you and your customers.
Protecting Margins Without Killing Growth
Free tiers and trials are customer acquisition tools, not charities. But heavy-handed caps destroy the user experience. Learn how to set intelligent limits that protect your margins while preserving the path to conversion.
Tactical playbooks
Step-by-step guides you can implement this week. Each playbook includes templates, benchmarks, and the exact metrics to track.
Free Trial Optimization
A 5-step framework for maximizing trial-to-paid conversion while controlling costs.
Companies using this framework see 20-40% improvement in trial conversion rates.
Feature-Level Pricing
How to identify which features should be gated, metered, or included in base pricing.
Proper feature gating typically increases ARPU 15-30% without impacting conversion.
Cohort-Based Forecasting
Predict costs and revenue 30-90 days out with confidence intervals your CFO will love.
Accurate forecasting reduces budget variance from ±30% to ±5%.
Quick reads
Bite-sized insights you can absorb in a coffee break
The Subscription Trap
Why flat-rate pricing leaves money on the table and creates misaligned incentives.
The 3-Touch Upgrade Sequence
A proven email + in-app sequence for converting trial users at the moment of highest intent.
When Usage-Based Pricing Fails
It's not for everyone. Here's how to know if your product is a fit.
The Value Metric Decision Tree
Choosing what to meter: API calls, seats, compute, storage, or something else entirely.
How Slack Thinks About Pricing
Lessons from one of the most successful usage-based models in SaaS history.
Budget Alerts That Convert
Turn cost notifications from churn risks into expansion opportunities.
What leaders are saying
Perspectives on pricing and unit economics from operators and investors who've seen what works.
"The companies winning right now aren't the ones with the best features—they're the ones with the best unit economics. You can't outspend bad economics."
"Usage-based pricing is the closest thing to a win-win in SaaS. Customers pay for value received, you capture value delivered. Everything else is a compromise."
"We spent 18 months trying to optimize our pricing page. Turns out the real leverage was in the infrastructure—knowing our costs let us price with confidence."
Ready to take control of your usage economics?
Join the private beta and start optimizing your costs today.