Curious Business: The B2B Growth Podcast

The Price is Wrong: Redesigning B2B SaaS Pricing Strategy with Roee Hartuv

Most B2B software companies are leaving serious money on the table — not because the product isn't good enough, not because the sales team needs more training. It's the pricing strategy. It's not the number you choose, it's everything that comes before it. Roee Hartuv is the founder of Willingness to Pay, a consultancy that helps B2B SaaS companies redesign product pricing and packaging from first principles. His philosophy is simple: stop pricing the product, start pricing the customer. B2B SaaS pricing strategy is the silent revenue multiplier most founders ignore. Discover how value-based pricing and packaging can transform your go-to-market strategy.   In this conversation, we get into: * Why the actual price you charge is probably the least important pricing decision you'll make * How the shift from SaaS to AI is destroying gross margins in ways most businesses aren't tracking * What 'operational debt' looks like and why bad pricing makes it harder to manage renewals * Why value selling as a sales methodology needs the right packaging to support it * What the shift from seat-based to usage-based pricing means for finance, investors and customers * Who's most likely to be getting pricing wrong Whether you're setting prices for the first time or running a mature product business that hasn't revisited its model in years, this episode will make you think differently.   Connect with Roee: On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roeehartuv/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/roeehartuv/] Willingness to Pay YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SaaSPricing/videos [https://www.youtube.com/@SaaSPricing/videos]   Chapters: * 00:58 — What is Willingness to Pay, and why does the name matter? * 03:12 — When should a company start thinking seriously about pricing? * 03:58 — Is changing your pricing as risky as it feels? * 09:43 — What triggers companies to seek help with pricing? * 14:20 — Is there a "right" price — or is pricing always a moving target? * 18:14 — How AI is collapsing gross margins in real time * 20:32 — The pricing stack: packaging → metric → structure → number * 24:36 — Why value selling doesn't work without the right packaging * 28:27 — 5x revenue in 18 months: what actually changed? * 31:29 — The most counterintuitive thing about B2B pricing * 37:01 — The one thing to do if you're moving into AI   -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. My name is Stephen Morris and I help start-ups and scale-ups get momentum in their marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/] Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/] If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk].

Predicting Startup Success | Measuring Team Dynamics with Soma Pirityi

We Invest In People is the oldest principle in venture capital. It's also, Soma Pirityi argues, the industry's longest-running paradox. 65% of startups fail due to team-related issues, not because they can't sell or find product market fit. So why can't we better measure, predict and guide startup teams to success?  Soma is the founder of ETA Technologies, the Cambridge-based company that's on a mission to measure, model and inform team dynamics. They've analysed over 10,000 startup teams and built mathematical models to spot the patterns of success - and failure - and realised that the team is the soul of the company. In this episode, we get into the data behind startup failure, the sometimes counterintuitive dimensions of what makes a great founding team, and why the single most predictive factor in startup survival is something most founders have never heard of. Listen to find out: * Why VCs are beaten by a stock-picking algorithm when it comes to early-stage investing * What the team slide in a pitch deck actually tells investors * Why too much resilience can kill a company as surely as too little * What is the single most predictive factor in founding team survival * The one story that proves why ignoring a data model can cost you everything Chapters: * 0:00:54 — The founding paradox: investing in people you cannot measure * 0:04:07 — From VC to founder: what crossing the table teaches you * 0:05:59 — The negotiation nobody teaches founders * 0:09:17 — Building ETA and why Cambridge beat Silicon Valley * 0:12:35 — 65%: the startup killer nobody talks about * 0:16:00 — The lone genius myth and the teams behind the icons * 0:19:45 — Survivorship bias: why ETA studies failure, not success * 0:26:29 — The Big 20: what ETA actually measures * 0:32:37 — Synergistic support: the most predictive factor nobody has heard of * 0:35:50 — Jim Simons: the mathematician who changed finance * 0:41:12 — The death of the pitch deck * 0:44:50 — The Frankenstein moment: testing their own team Links: * ETA Technologies: https://eta-technologies.com/ [https://eta-technologies.com/] * Connect with Soma on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soma-benedek-pirityi/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/soma-benedek-pirityi/] Book recommendations: * Peter Thiel with Blake Masters 'Zero to One'  https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9780753555200 [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9780753555200] (affiliate links) * Gregory Zuckerman 'The Man Who Solved the Market' (Biography of Jim Simons and Renaissance Technologies) https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9780241309735 [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9780241309735] * Ashlee Vance 'Elon Musk' https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9780753555644 [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9780753555644]   -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. My name is Stephen Morris and I help start-ups and scale-ups get momentum in their marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/] Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/] If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk].

Thinking On Your Feet: Improv Skills for Business Growth with Neil Mullarkey

You couldn't make it up. But Neil Mullarkey does. He co-founded the World Famous Comedy Store Players with Mike Myers, appeared in the Austin Powers films, and has spent 40 years making things up in front of live audiences. For the last 27 years, he's been sharing those skills in boardrooms, with teams, and even with cybersecurity experts. In this episode, discover why thinking on your feet isn't a party trick - it's a critical business strategy for leaders managing complex teams and uncertain moments. His book In the Moment makes the case that the ability to listen, adapt, and build on what you're given isn't just good stagecraft. It's the most urgently needed skill in business. What's more, it's one that many teams and organisations struggle with. He argues, with warmth and hard‑won experience, that the same instincts that keep an improvised scene alive - listening, accepting an offer, and building on what’s been given - are the skills businesses desperately need to foster. In this conversation, I learn about Neil's journey into improv and we get into mistakes, blame, trust, failure, permission, laughter, silos, scripts, chaos, a soda syphon, and the surprising thing a room full of cardiologists taught Neil about improvising at the sharp end. Listen to find out: * Why laughter matters and 'mistakes' are rich creative material * Why the optimal team size is six, and what that has to do with improv * What a cybersecurity crisis has in common with a night at the Comedy Store * What cardiologists told Neil that changed his mind about improv in business * Why AI is making this deeply human skill more valuable, not less   Links: Neil's book 'In the Moment': https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9781398610767 [https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9781398610767] More about Neil and ImprovYourBusiness: https://neilmullarkey.com/ [https://neilmullarkey.com/] Connect with Neil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilmullarkey/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilmullarkey/] A rare appearance by Neil with the Comedy Store Players on Sunday May 10th:  https://www.comedystoreplayers.com/events/comedy-store-10052026 [https://www.comedystoreplayers.com/events/comedy-store-10052026]   Chapters: 0:01:44 - More than a jolly: when to use improv and when not to 0:05:28 - How do you make it stick? 0:08:09 - Hackathons and the improv vs. structure tension 0:12:20 - The meetings chapter: tell, decide or implement? 0:13:21 - Permission, leaders and curating questions 0:15:08 - Origin story: from soda siphon to Comedy Store Players 0:19:32 - Confidence, failure and the improv stage 0:22:07 - Do you rehearse improvisation? 0:30:11 - What business pain does improv training address? 0:33:42 - Improv and cybersecurity crisis management 0:36:23 - The show must go on: mistakes, blame and Miles Davis 0:39:21 - Two pizza teams and the optimal team size 0:46:22 - Has anything changed in 27 years? AI and the human element 0:48:55 - Silos, shadowing and equifinality 0:53:05 - Improv or Best Practice? The cardiologists story   -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. My name is Stephen Morris and I help start-ups and scale-ups get momentum in their marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/] Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/] If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk].

The Podcast Industry Expert Without A Podcast | with Chris Stone

Chris Stone has spent 13 years in the podcast industry, creating audio and video content for major UK publishers like The Telegraph, Evening Standard and New Statesman. He also writes the Podcast Strategy Weekly newsletter. But there's a twist: he doesn't have a podcast of his own. Why? Instead, he's launching Podcast Crew - a vetted marketplace solving a huge B2B gap in podcast production hiring. In this conversation, we explore why he chose to build infrastructure over personal brand, how podcasting fits into an overall content strategy, and how B2B leaders can apply this thinking to their own growth. Chris also challenges some of the most common assumptions podcasters hold: that social clips drive listeners, that video is for younger audiences, and that everyone who wants to grow their business should start a show. He also has a lot to say about where podcasting is heading - and why AI and podcasts are good news for live, in-person events. Listen to this episode to find out: * Why someone who has spent 13 years making podcasts for a living - and now advising other podcasters - doesn't have one himself * The question Chris asks every podcaster he meets, and why they often can't answer it * What social clips from your podcast are actually for * Why AI and podcasts are good for another, more conventional, medium * The dark web podcast Chris thinks everyone should hear * Why podcasts might be the most powerful community-building tool available right now Chapters: 03:10 – The Telegraph, Prince Harry, and Bryony Gordon's Mad World 04:45 – Building the New Statesman's podcast from a cupboard to 200k YouTube subscribers 07:47 – The three skills that make podcasting work 09:46 – Going off-the-cuff at the Labour Party conference 12:08 – Why Chris started writing Podcast Strategy Weekly 16:06 – Why a podcast producer deliberately doesn't have a podcast 20:04 – How B2B podcasts build trust (and why that matters more than reach) 21:30 – The case for video in podcasting 24:37 – What social clips are actually for (it's not what you think) 29:56 – Why hiring in podcasting is broken 32:11 – Building on Airtable and Softr with a developer from Upwork 34:18 – The podcast everyone should hear 38:05 – Three big opportunities in podcasting right now   Links: * Podcast Strategy Weekly: https://podcaststrategy.substack.com/ [https://podcaststrategy.substack.com/] * Podcast Crew: https://www.podcastcrew.co.uk/ [https://www.podcastcrew.co.uk/] * Connect with Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisstonetv/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisstonetv/] * Kill List podcast: search on any podcast app: https://wondery.com/shows/kill-list/ [https://wondery.com/shows/kill-list/]   -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. My name is Stephen Morris and I help start-ups and scale-ups get momentum in their marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/] Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/] If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk].

Is the software industry broken? Justin Megawarne of Megaslice

After growing up as a programmer, hating school, and being given a chance to follow his passion via an apprenticeship, Justin Megawarne is the co-founder of Megaslice, a technology consultancy with a difference. Justin progressed to consulting, software architecture and CTO roles. However, he became tired of seeing technically excellent work fail commercially. So, along with co-founder Mikal, he built Megaslice with a mission to let no good idea go to waste. In this episode, Justin argues that the tech industry is structurally set up to fail its clients - through broken billing models, misaligned incentives, and methodologies that function primarily as ways to transfer liability to the client. He makes the case for value pricing as the more ethical model, explains why the right quality in a founder isn't confidence but arrogance, and outlines his approach to shared risk and long-term client relationships. In this episode: * What Nobel Prize-winning economics has to do with your software agency * Why Hiring a Software Agency Is Like Buying a Used Car * The difference between outcomes and outputs — and why it matters * Just what is "the right level of arrogance" in a founder? * The interview question Justin uses instead of a coding test * Why Megaslice says 'work from wherever it makes sense' to its team * Why 'specialisation is for insects' * The single most important thing founders tend to get backwards Links:  More about Megaslice: https://megaslice.uk/ [https://megaslice.uk/] Connect with Justin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmegawarne/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmegawarne/] Chapters: 0:01:06 - Megaslice and Justin's background 0:06:33 - The Lemon Market problem 0:10:41 - Time and materials, Agile, and broken industry incentives 0:13:42 - Interest alignment and giving clients what they need 0:16:33 - Qualifying clients — founder profile, arrogance, and capital 0:21:48 - Why organisations find software so difficult 0:26:14 - Why start a company — and how Megaslice has changed 0:28:27 - Hiring for intrinsic motivation — and the hi-vis jacket story 0:35:01 - The biggest thing founders get wrong 0:38:16 - Who inspires Justin — the crackpots of history -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. My name is Stephen Morris and I help start-ups and scale-ups get momentum in their marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/] Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/] If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk [https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk].