find
Budget and card thresholds
Price the pilot under fast-path thresholds, then move to phase two.
Find the fast path
Ask what they can approve without a multi-month AP cycle. Card limits and departmental spend often start pilots that corporate procurement would stall.
Protect phase two
Write the commercial target into the agreement so the pilot price doesn't become the permanent price.
Sample pricing ladder (fictional)
Illustrative numbers for a mid-market ops tool. The session pattern was about $20K on a card, closed in days, followed by a six-figure phase two. That pattern comes from the practitioner session and Startup Bible, so treat it as one data point.
| Stage | Example price | Approval path | What it buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid diagnostic / pilot | $18–25K (under card limit) | Champion card / discretionary | 6–8 weeks, 3–5 criteria, decision meeting |
| Phase-two ACV (year 1) | $95–120K | Economic buyer + procurement | Production seats, SLA, named support |
| Expand year 2 | $140–180K | Budget cycle | Additional sites / modules at list |
Claims and patterns on this page are paraphrased from practitioner session notes and the Startup Bible (Pilots that convert). See Sources.