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:
- 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).
- The ladder, if the business can have one: a good / better / best (size, bundle, subscription, membership) with a reason to step up each rung.
- The opening offer: an intro price or bonus for launch that does not train buyers to wait for discounts, with an end date.
- 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).
- The panel's verbatim price objections (top three), so marketing can answer them.
Rules
- Price answers from simulated buyers pick what to test. They are not proof.
- Never price below variable cost to "buy" customers without saying so, and how long the CFO says the business can afford it.
- No fake anchors: no "was $X" price that was never charged.
Output
founder/pricing-curve.md, founder/pricing.md. If the price changed, update
founder/numbers.json and re-run /founder-cfo. Next: /founder-offer.