Mostly Growth

In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, Kyle and CJ break down why usage-based pricing is taking off—and how it breaks the traditional SaaS playbook. They cover what’s driving the shift, what breaks (sales comp, forecasting, renewals, metrics), and how to get investors and customers comfortable. Plus, how Snowflake reframed the model and common mistakes to...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, Kyle and CJ explore one of the most important questions in the AI era: what decisions should we actually delegate to machines? From agents spending money with corporate cards to handling customer support, hiring, and even sales, they break down where automation makes sense—and where it gets uncomfortable. Plus, how l...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, we unpack Sequoia’s thesis that the next $1T company will sell outcomes, not software. If selling tools puts you in a race against AI, does selling the work win instead? We break down which industries are most exposed, real-world examples, and what this shift means for moats, pricing, and valuation. — SPONSORS: Hocke...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, CJ Gustafson and Kyle Poyar break down one of the most overlooked levers in SaaS: free-to-paid conversion. With the average product converting just 8% of users, they unpack the tactics that actually move the needle—from attracting higher-intent users and improving onboarding to rethinking pricing, packaging, and sales-assist models. — SPONSORS: Tropic is an intell...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, CJ and Kyle break down one of the most consequential questions in tech right now: which major private company will IPO first, and just how big will it be? From Anthropic and SpaceX to OpenAI, Databricks, and Canva, they rank the candidates, debate the motivations to go public in an era of unlimited private capital, a...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, CJ and Kyle unpack one of the most confusing functions in SaaS: customer success. Based on a survey of 132 GTM leaders, they break down how CS teams are staffed, compensated, and structured — and why 93% of companies still aren’t confident they’ve gotten the model right. From P&L placement to comp plans to expans...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, Kyle and CJ sit down with Metronome CEO Scott Woody to unpack one of the biggest questions in tech: how AI will actually make money. They discuss usage-based pricing, credit models, and why AI may push software toward value-aligned monetization—plus what happens when agents, not humans, start making purchasing decisi...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, Kyle and CJ break down Figma’s new AI credit model and why investors sent the stock up 14%. They unpack hybrid seat + credit pricing, power-law usage, the fine print on overages, and what this means for SaaS monetization in the age of AI. Plus: Snapchat’s 25M paying subs and a cautionary overages tale. — SPONSORS: Ri...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, CJ Gustafson and Kyle Poyar tackle the “SaaS-pocalypse.” With median EV/NTM revenue multiples grinding to a 10-year low and stocks like Salesforce, Oracle, Figma, and Asana sharply off their peaks, they break down the real bear case: collapsing retention, AI replacing SaaS, and startups outflanking incumbents. Then t...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, Kyle Poyar sits down with Emir Atli, co-founder & CRO of HockeyStack, to unpack what 90% of GTM teams get wrong about AI. They explore why most AI efforts stall, how broken data infrastructure kills results, and how agent-first workflows, sales blueprints, and AI-driven forecasting helped HockeyStack accelerate c...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, CJ and Kyle break down OpenAI’s move to introduce ads in ChatGPT and what it means for AI monetization. They contrast Anthropic’s anti-ad positioning with ChatGPT’s scale advantage, unpack the $60 CPM pricing model, and debate whether conversational ads can justify premium ROI. From market size math to competitive th...

On this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, Kyle and CJ dive into vertical SaaS and the “riches in niches” playbook. From Skimmer to Rock Auto to Epicor, they unpack why obscure software companies win, the TAM trap, product attach rate, month-one churn, and gross profit per location. Plus: front vs back office, marketplaces, competitive moats, and whether vert...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson break down how newsletters went from career risk to career leverage. Drawing on their own stories, they walk through a tactical, no-fluff guide to starting and growing a newsletter—from naming, domains, and branding to writing, consistency, and AI use. — SPONSORS: Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson run a fantasy startup draft—Super Bowl–style. If you were founding a company today, who would you hire first? Marketing generalist, founding BDR, product marketing, RevOps, customer success, or a first business hire? Kyle and CJ draft five non-technical roles each, debate tradeoffs, and explain how early hiring choices shape growth, eff...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar, CJ Gustafson, and Ben Hillman break down the economics and psychology of “free,” explaining why the jump from free to even $0.01 fundamentally changes behavior. They unpack freemium, free trials, reverse trials, ungated products, and credit-card trials, sharing real conversion benchmarks and CFO-level tradeoffs between acquisition and revenue. The take...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson unpack the pricing models hiding in plain sight. They break down razor-and-blade economics, hardware plus software, waitlists, free samples, luxury and Veblen goods, decoy pricing, two-part tariffs, and price anchoring. Using examples from Costco to SaaS and AI, they show how pricing psychology drives acquisition, retention, and willing...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson sit down with Jen Allen-Knuth to break down why “status quo” is the most dangerous competitor in B2B sales. They unpack the psychology of change, why buyers care more about confidence than features, and how sales principles show up in leadership, forecasting, and finance. The conversation covers qualifying real pipeline, running better...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson unpack the real economics of brand marketing—from Super Bowl ads and CPM math to attribution, incrementality, and PLG arbitrage. They debate when brand spend actually drives growth, why CFOs struggle to measure it, and how B2B companies justify big bets. The episode wraps with Pricing in the Real World, breaking down Rivian’s lower-pric...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, CJ Gustafson and Kyle Poyar unpack how marketplaces really make money by dissecting take rates across companies like Uber, Airbnb, DoorDash, Etsy, and Amazon. They explore what drives take rates—power dynamics, frequency, ticket size, and value delivered—plus why pushing a “rake too far” can backfire. The episode blends real examples, a take-rate guessing game, an...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast for product monetization, CJ Gustafson and Kyle Poyar dig into what actually makes a sales comp plan effective—and why so many go wrong. They break down OTE, quotas, accelerators, spiffs, ramps, and usage-based models, plus how incentives shape behavior across sales and customer success. The conversation covers margin-based comp, AI’s impact...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle and CJ are joined by Russell Lester, President and CFO of Tropic, for a deep dive into what real procurement data reveals about SaaS pricing. They break down multiyear discounts, why volume matters more than contract length, how AI is reshaping pricing models, and when longer commitments actually hurt buyers. Plus, lessons on negotiation leverage, price incre...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson sit down with Daniel Lang, CEO and co-founder of Mangomint, the vertical SaaS platform powering thousands of salons and spas across North America. Daniel shares how Mangomint scaled past $25M ARR in a crowded market by obsessing over product quality, sequencing, and customer trust. The conversation dives into why AI has not meaningfully...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar, CJ Gustafson, and Ben Hillman unpack what actually matters as AI reshapes how companies grow. They debate why legacy metrics like LTV to CAC are breaking down, explore emerging measures such as gross profit per token and outcome-based performance, and discuss how AI changes sales compensation, org design, and go-to-market economics. Along the way, they...

In this year-end episode of Mostly Growth, CJ Gustafson, Kyle Poyar, and Ben Hillman reflect on what it actually takes to build a modern media business around newsletters and podcasts. They unpack CJ’s first year going full-time, comparing creative intuition versus metric-driven operating styles, and discuss what content truly drives growth. The conversation also covers distribution dynamics, the...

In this episode of Mostly Growth, CJ Gustafson, Kyle Poyar, and Ben Hillman go deep on pricing—how it’s discovered, negotiated, and perceived in the real world. The conversation spans Salesforce’s rapid-fire evolution of AI pricing models, unpacking the tradeoffs between consumption-based pricing, flat-rate enterprise licenses, and bundling AI to drive expansion and simplify buying decisions. The...