How Much Should You Charge?: A Guide for Indian Entrepreneurs

Series · 12 partsStart with Part 1 →

Pricing is the step most Indian founders leave for last, and it is often why good products fail to earn. In this series, Dr. Aniruddha Malpani adapts the ideas of Monetizing Innovation (Madhavan Ramanujam and Georg Tacke) for Indian entrepreneurs: find out what customers will pay before you build, segment by willingness to pay, choose a pricing model, and use AI to test it. Start with the Preface and read the chapters in order, or jump to the one you need.

Start With the Price

1. Preface: This guide explains why Indian entrepreneurs should decide pricing before building products.
2. Chapter 1: The Pricing Paradox Facing Indian Entrepreneurs: This chapter explains why many new products fail to meet financial targets and how pricing decisions contribute to that failure.

Read the Indian Customer

3. Chapter 2: Design the Product Around the Price: This chapter explains how to design a product around what customers value and will pay for.
4. Chapter 3: Understanding Willingness to Pay in the Indian Market: This chapter explains why willingness to pay differs across Indian customers, situations, and offers.
5. Chapter 4: Segment by Willingness to Pay, Not Just Demographics: This chapter explains how Indian entrepreneurs can group customers by willingness to pay and the features that create value for them.

Turn Value Into Revenue

6. Chapter 5: Identify the Value Drivers That Matter: This chapter explains how to separate features that increase willingness to pay from those that add little value or make a product harder to buy.
7. Chapter 6: Choose the Right Pricing Model and Value Metric: This chapter explains how Indian entrepreneurs can choose a pricing model and value metric that reflect the value customers receive.
8. Chapter 7: Indian Case Studies in Monetizing Innovation: This chapter examines how Indian businesses used pricing to reshape markets, attract customers, and build sustainable models.

Test Before You Commit

9. Chapter 8: Common Pricing Mistakes Indian Entrepreneurs Make: This chapter explains common pricing mistakes that can reduce profit, weaken positioning, and hurt conversion for Indian entrepreneurs.
10. Chapter 9: Using AI to Master Pricing and Monetization: This chapter explains how Indian founders can use artificial intelligence to research customers, test willingness to pay, design packages, and improve pricing decisions.
11. Chapter 10: A Practical Roadmap for Indian Founders: This chapter presents a practical pricing process for Indian founders, from defining customer needs to reviewing prices over time.
12. Conclusion: Charge What You Are Worth, By Design: This chapter explains why products should be designed around customer willingness to pay instead of priced after development.