Pricing technical products when nothing comparable exists

When nothing comparable exists, cost-plus pricing is the default and it is almost always wrong. The right anchor is what the customer saves or earns per year by using the technology, calculated with their own numbers. Price a fraction of that value, then build the total cost of ownership case that survives procurement.

Hardware and deeptech companies undercharge for a structural reason: the founder knows the bill of materials and does not know the buyer's annual downtime cost. The buyer knows the opposite. Every guide below is about closing that gap.

Pricing is also a commercial-proof problem. A first deal priced badly sets the reference for every deal after it, and a discount granted casually becomes the expected price in that industry.

1. 01How to price something nobody has ever bought beforeNo comparable product means no comparable price, and founders freeze. But your buyer is not comparing you to another product. They are comparing you to the cost
2. 02Value based pricing for technical products, explained with a pumpYour buyer does not care what your technology cost to build. They care what their problem costs to keep. Value based pricing starts from their spreadsheet, not
3. 03Cost-plus feels honest. It is also why hardware startups stay poor.Cost-plus pricing feels like integrity: fair margin on real costs. In hardware it quietly does three things: caps your price at your BOM, invites procurement in
4. 04Pricing your first deal: why founders discount at the wrong momentYour first industrial customer asks for a lower price. Founders almost always say yes, and at exactly the wrong moment. Here is when discounting is smart, when
5. 05Your price is not expensive. Their problem is expensive. The TCO case that proves itProcurement will always compare your price to the cheap alternative. The TCO case changes what is being compared: not your price against theirs, but their probl
6. 06The capex approval process: why your champion cannot say yesYou won the pilot. Then the deal disappeared into a document you will never see. How industrial capex approval actually works, and why the calendar matters more
7. 07Stop selling robots. Sell the hour nobody has to work.The robot is your unit of production. It does not have to be your unit of sale. On RaaS pricing, which risk you own at each price point, and the cash mathematic