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Forcing functions and missteps—how to stay ahead of SaaS pricing in 2025.

How should SaaS leaders handle the pricing changes that are already happening in 2025?

In this blog post, Metronome CEO Scott Woody and SaaS pricing expert Kyle Poyar share their key predictions for where pricing is headed this year, plus the concrete steps you can take now to stay ahead.

From AI-driven models to buyer expectations around flexibility and transparency, you’ll walk away with an edge on how to adapt faster than the market.

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HOUSEKEEPING 📨

Howdy team! Another great interview for you today. I’ve been booking a load of new founders and execs that are now in the pipeline to ship in the next weeks. The founder of Intercom founder, early Salesforce hires, AI trainers and more. Excited to get these conversations in your inbox. Aside from that, I am just minding my own business, trying to enjoy my final two weeks living in Argentina.

_{*No context on the clip from Succession here. I just love Tom and I love Succession.}

It’s a real bittersweet feeling leaving a place that’s been my home, but I am slowly getting used to the idea of being a full fledged Australian again. And it’s really equal parts exciting as well. Anyway, nothing more from me—enjoy today’s interview with Sagar from Speakeasy!

INTERVIEW 🎙️

Sagar Batchu, Co-Founder & CEO of Speakeasy

Sagar Batchu is the Co-Founder and CEO of Speakeasy, a developer platform that simplifies API creation and consumption for modern teams, including those building AI-powered systems. He brings a strong background in engineering and product as the former Director of Engineering for LiveRamp’s SafeHaven product.

His career in tech was shaped by firsthand experience with the challenges of building scalable API platforms in large enterprises. Before Speakeasy, he worked on infrastructure tools and developer ecosystems, gaining insight into the gaps that exist in current API tooling. His vision for Speakeasy is rooted in developer empathy, and the platform now powers some of the world’s fastest-growing companies.

Tell us about the problem you're trying to solve and why this?

At Speakeasy, we’re building a modern toolchain for API development. Our goal is to make it really easy for companies to both create and consume APIs.

The motivation came from my experience working on different API platforms at enterprise companies. I saw how difficult it was for large organizations to align around building great APIs, and how poor the tooling still is today. I wanted to build high-quality infrastructure that allows developers not only to create APIs but to craft really elegant, powerful API experiences.

As we’ve evolved, we've started solving problems on both sides: helping teams build and launch great APIs with tools like documentation, SDKs, and testing—and now, thanks to AI, we’re also helping consumers interact with APIs more intuitively via chat interfaces and agentic frameworks. We're investing in AI tools that let these systems easily access and use APIs. So, it’s become a two-sided product: one for producers, one for consumers.

What was the most difficult thing when going from zero to one?

The most difficult part was navigating the different approaches to building something from zero. As a founder, you can rely on your instincts, stay close to a handful of customers through a design partner model, or go open source and hope to ride a broader wave of interest. The reality is, the right approach usually lies somewhere in the middle.

That means balancing your instincts, your experience, and the feedback you’re getting from users.

A lot of founders come in with deep experience in the space they’re building for, which makes it tempting to trust what they know over what they hear. So the challenge is really about interpreting all those signals, internal and external, and using them to decide what the next right step is. That constant recalibration is one of the hardest parts.

In Speakeasy’s early days, did you have design partners?

Yes, we did. In the early days, we worked with around five to ten design partners, and that was a major focus for us during the first two quarters. Those partnerships played a crucial role in shaping the company.

Design partners help in a few key ways. First, they guide product development—it’s almost like running a consulting shop where you're building exactly what these companies need. The challenge is balancing that with creating something repeatable that can scale across other customers, which is why having multiple design partners is important.

Second, they help establish credibility. Early on, being able to reference known logos builds trust, and that momentum compounds. Logos beget more logos. And finally, design partners provide indirect benefits, like making fundraising and hiring easier. Especially for enterprise products, being associated with great companies early on can propel your business forward. You're essentially borrowing credibility while you build your own.

Who is your ICP and how did you identify them?

Our ICP today is on the producer side; primarily teams and individuals who are building APIs, both for internal and external use. These are companies with significant API landscapes that want to accelerate API development without increasing engineering costs. So it’s a combination of speeding up development and avoiding additional headcount.

We tend to resonate most with fast-growing companies—typically Series B, C, D, and beyond—as well as large enterprises. You can see some of those on our site, and there are a few we haven’t publicly named yet.

At the same time, we also serve smaller teams through a self-service tier. That’s brought in everyone from indie hackers to 10-15 person startups. Having that product-led growth motion has been valuable. It forces us to build a strong product, and that feedback loop improves everything. But most of our revenue today still comes from mid-to-large enterprises.

What did the early go-to-market look like and how did you acquire the largest enterprise logos?

We approached go-to-market in a few different ways. Like most founders, I started by leveraging my personal network for introductions. That can take you pretty far, especially if you're based in a major tech hub like San Francisco, New York, or London. Investors, VCs, and angels also played a role in helping us break through the cold-start problem.

What really moved the needle, though, was aligning Speakeasy with popular open-source ecosystems in API development, like OpenAPI and FastAPI. These are widely used, so by contributing to those communities through guides, tools, and high-quality content, we were able to build organic awareness.

That work helped us build strong SEO and search presence early on. Today, we rank among the top results for a lot of OpenAPI-related queries, and since OpenAPI is a standard used across billions of REST APIs, that’s been a powerful channel. It’s how we brought in many of our early design partners and how a large share of our self-service customers still find us.

What is your main day-to-day job as a CEO at Speakeasy?

Honestly, I wish someone would tell me! My background is in development, so I naturally lean into product and developer ecosystems. I spend a lot of time building the brand, shaping the product, and hiring the right people around those areas—that’s where I’m strongest, and that’s where most of my time goes. Because I’ve worked extensively with APIs and tools like OpenAPI in the past, I have a good instinct for what developers want in a product like ours.

But as the company grows, my role has evolved. I’ve gone from being a builder to wearing the product hat, and now I also spend a lot of time selling, hiring, and representing the company publicly.

At this stage, I see my job as being the ultimate megaphone for Speakeasy—engaging with customers, amplifying the brand, and helping the team stay aligned and energized.

Who are your direct reports? What does your team look like?

My co-founder Simon is our COO, and he runs customer success, which we're really proud of. Our enterprise support SLAs are excellent, and he's managed to deliver that with a small, efficient team. He also wears a lot of other hats and has a strong background across banking, finance, and product, which makes him great at keeping operations tight.

We also have Hector Hernandez as our head of go to market. He’s got an amazing background; he was a global VP of sales at LaunchDarkly and CRO at both Traceable and Teleport. He really understands how to run enterprise sales for developer-focused products.

On the engineering side, I still have a couple of direct reports, including our engineering manager. We're a small team, around 25 people right now, so I’m still fairly close to the work. Every person on the team is either building the product or selling it, which is how we like to operate at this stage.

How do you set goals at such an early stage? What type of cadence or framework do you use?

There are two sides to how we think about goals. For certain roles, like sales and marketing, you need clear incentives and targets. But more broadly, I focus on being extremely clear about the top-level vision; where we're going as a company, what our mission is, and the values we want to embody in our product.

When it comes to day-to-day product decisions, I try not to oversteer. Autonomy is a core value for us; in fact, one of our principles is ‘autonomy over consensus.’ We aim for alignment, but when it comes to important technical or strategic decisions, we trust the person closest to the problem.

That trust allows individuals to take ownership, grow into their roles, and feel truly invested. So we set the big-picture KPIs and direction, but we give the team the freedom to execute and evolve things in their own way. That balance is what helps us move fast and stay grounded.

If you were to choose one metric, what would that be? What's your North Star and why?

Like any company, we obviously care about revenue. But when I think about impact, our true North Star is the percentage of APIs in the world that we help power.

If we can become the default way that developers build and scale REST APIs, that’s massive. That would mean we’re not just another tool—we’re foundational to the API ecosystem. That kind of ubiquity and influence is what we’re aiming for.

How do you think about leadership? What's your philosophy on how to lead?

My leadership philosophy is definitely evolving, but at its core, I believe my main job is to bring the right people into the company—and then get out of their way.

It’s a tough balance because, of course, I have opinions across product, design, marketing, and more. But I try not to lead through control. Control doesn’t scale. Instead, I focus on building structure through clear milestones and lightweight processes that support autonomy.

Ultimately, I see myself as a resource. The person anyone can come to when they’re stuck or need clarity. But I’m not here to do their job for them. My goal is to empower people, provide direction when needed, and make sure the broader mission is always clear. That’s how you build a team that owns what they do and grows with the company.

Can you detail your recruitment strategy? Which channels do you use and what does the process look like?

There’s a lot of philosophy that goes into hiring, but a few things have worked particularly well for us. Early on, we leaned heavily on contracting as a path to full-time hires. It’s not super scalable, but for foundational team members, it’s a great way to test fit. You bring someone in on a project basis, see how you work together, and if it clicks, you convert them; with the right incentives in place. These are the people you’ll spend countless hours with, so that alignment is key.

As we've grown, we’ve kept the process pretty lightweight and open-ended, but we’ve made sure it reflects who we are. We’re a developer-focused company that values craft and quality, so we want people who have a clear perspective on how they build.

In terms of channels, we use a mix; referrals, networks, some outbound. But we prioritize finding high-performance individuals. At our stage, everyone needs to either be building the product or selling the product. That focus has shaped how and who we hire.

Do you run hybrid, onsite, or remote—and why?

We run a hybrid setup. We have teams in both London and San Francisco, with about half the company based in each location. We also have a few remote team members outside those hubs. While we follow remote-first processes so we can scale effectively, we still value in-person time.

It’s really about striking a balance between focused, individual work and the creativity that comes from being in the same room.

💡 Looking to hire remote? If the answer is yes, Athyna (my startup) can help. Product and engineering? Finance and ops? We can help.

How do you get the best out of yourself personally and professionally? What rituals do you have?

Yeah, great question. I mean, hey, this job is really demanding. Not even just in terms of hours or being physically demanding; because the truth is, people who work hard end up working hard wherever they go. If you're in a big company and you enjoy working, you're going to push really hard.

But the real challenge of this job is the mental context load. It’s the number of things flying through your head and how hard it is to shut that off. Even when you’re not working, it creeps back in. It's this constant background noise in your brain.

So over the last two and a half, three years of building this business, I’ve made a serious effort to invest in myself just as much as I invest in the company. That means tons of physical exercise—I’ve built a great routine around it, and I’m lucky to have some amazing people supporting me in that.

I also really invest in my relationships. My weekly rituals are super important: I always play basketball on Sunday mornings. I never miss that. It gives me a reset for the week. I’ve got a regular poker night with friends, which I try to make most weeks. I carve out time to be present with my partner during certain parts of the week.

These rituals help a lot. The weeks can be so chaotic in a startup, and rituals keep you grounded. They help make sure that the rest of your life doesn’t just slip by without you noticing.

And that’s it! You can also follow Sagar on LinkedIn or check Speakeasy out on their website!

BRAIN FOOD 🧠 

TWEETS OF THE WEEK 🐣 

TOOLS WE USE 🛠️

Every week we highlight tools we actually use inside of our business and give them an honest review. Today we are highlighting Attio—powerful, flexible and data-driven, the exact CRM your business needs.

See the full set of tools we use inside of Athyna & Open Source CEO here.

HOW I CAN HELP 🥳

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