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Madhavan Ramanujam

Published podcast speaker

Claims
31
Episodes
2
Shows
1
Named items
4

Books, apps, and tools

The evidenced stack.

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book / recommends

Contagious

“And probably the third one that I recommend is a book called Contagious by Jonah Berger. I love that.”

Lenny's Podcast · 27 Jul 2025

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

book / recommends

Business Model Canvas

“The first one that comes to mind is Business Model Canvas by Alex Osterwalder. It's a classic and one of my favorite books. I recommend a lot of people to read that because I think it nicely ties a lot of what we are also seeing from a more strategic business model angle. I like this book, Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow. I think that's also a classic because, again, there's always a human element to things. And understanding the customer psychology is important whether you're in B2C or in B2B. Because if you're in a B2B situation, it's humans having a human conversation. So it's as much behavioral as it's actually numbers. So I love that book, and there's a lot of nuggets in there, so I recommend a lot. And probably the third one that I recommend is a book called Contagious by Jonah Berger. I love that. He was in the PhD program at Stanford in marketing, and he actually wrote this book on how to make messages viral. And he's actually seen the best viral messages and boiled it down to a framework. And if you follow that, then you can make those messages viral. And I've tried to use some of those in my own outreaches and things of that nature, so I think it's a fantastic read.”

Lenny's Podcast · 27 Jul 2025

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

book / built

Monetizing Innovation

“Too late, I think is more so the companies, this is why we wrote Monetizing Innovation.”

Lenny's Podcast · 8 Dec 2022

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

book / likes

Confessions of the Pricing Man

“Our founder Herman Simon, of the Simon of Simon Kucher has done a lot of books, particularly I like one, which is called Confessions of the Pricing Man.”

Lenny's Podcast · 8 Dec 2022

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

Claim ledger

What Madhavan said.

31 transcript-backed records

01 / recommendation

Recommends Business Model Canvas. Recommends Contagious.

“The first one that comes to mind is Business Model Canvas by Alex Osterwalder. It's a classic and one of my favorite books. I recommend a lot of people to read that because I think it nicely ties a lot of what we are also seeing from a more strategic business model angle. I like this book, Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow. I think that's also a classic because, again, there's always a human element to things. And understanding the customer psychology is important whether you're in B2C or in B2B. Because if you're in a B2B situation, it's humans having a human conversation. So it's as much behavioral as it's actually numbers. So I love that book, and there's a lot of nuggets in there, so I recommend a lot. And probably the third one that I recommend is a book called Contagious by Jonah Berger. I love that. He was in the PhD program at Stanford in marketing, and he actually wrote this book on how to make messages viral. And he's actually seen the best viral messages and boiled it down to a framework. And if you follow that, then you can make those messages viral. And I've tried to use some of those in my own outreaches and things of that nature, so I think it's a fantastic read.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

03 / belief

I mean, if you're bringing a lot of value to the table and you started training your customers to expect $20 a month and you anchored yourself on a low price point, I think there are companies that have actually done that.

“I mean, if you're bringing a lot of value to the table and you started training your customers to expect $20 a month and you anchored yourself on a low price point, I think there are companies that have actually done that.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

05 / belief

I would argue that all four apply in the startup and all five actually apply in the scale-up phase, but it's not like you need to start focusing on nine things from day one.

“I would argue that all four apply in the startup and all five actually apply in the scale-up phase, but it's not like you need to start focusing on nine things from day one.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

08 / recommendation

" What that would mean is, how do I build functionality in the products to actually show attribution, how do I build more agentic workforces to take the human out of the loop and be more autonomous, and being thoughtful about your vision and strategy so that you will orient yourself towards more outcome-based pricing models. So when you think about increasing attribution, that means, first of all, understanding what are the KPIs of your customers.

“" What that would mean is, how do I build functionality in the products to actually show attribution, how do I build more agentic workforces to take the human out of the loop and be more autonomous, and being thoughtful about your vision and strategy so that you will orient yourself towards more outcome-based pricing models. So when you think about increasing attribution, that means, first of all, understanding what are the KPIs of your customers.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

09 / recommendation

" So these kind of questions become more critical, and that's why the chapter on blowing up your packaging from your early days and coming up with your packaging strategy for your scale-up phase become very critical. So I think that's the next thing that founders would be hit with, as in when they build multiple products, they need to think about the whole packaging, cross-selling, up-selling motion.

“" So these kind of questions become more critical, and that's why the chapter on blowing up your packaging from your early days and coming up with your packaging strategy for your scale-up phase become very critical. So I think that's the next thing that founders would be hit with, as in when they build multiple products, they need to think about the whole packaging, cross-selling, up-selling motion.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

10 / evaluation

Because if your customer is budget conscious, they'll say, "Hey, I like the hundred K price point, but I actually like the functionality in your 200K product.

“Because if your customer is budget conscious, they'll say, "Hey, I like the hundred K price point, but I actually like the functionality in your 200K product.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

11 / preference

How cool is that? And I think that I really love the product category. There's a lot of different use cases, longevity, extension, use cases, things of that nature.

“How cool is that? And I think that I really love the product category. There's a lot of different use cases, longevity, extension, use cases, things of that nature.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

12 / prediction

If you look at the state of where AI is today, as of the day of recording this podcast, now, the most popular model is right now a hybrid pricing model. So because this is also expected, because the previous SaaS playbook was usually on the seat-based model, but they've all now moved on to at least a hybrid to actually incorporate AI credits and usage, et cetera, about 5% of companies are probably in a true outcome-based pricing model as of today.

“If you look at the state of where AI is today, as of the day of recording this podcast, now, the most popular model is right now a hybrid pricing model. So because this is also expected, because the previous SaaS playbook was usually on the seat-based model, but they've all now moved on to at least a hybrid to actually incorporate AI credits and usage, et cetera, about 5% of companies are probably in a true outcome-based pricing model as of today.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

13 / evaluation

Probably my second one is the price paralysis axioms. So what that means is your reluctance to do a price increase is often internal and emotional and it's not external and logical.

“Probably my second one is the price paralysis axioms. So what that means is your reluctance to do a price increase is often internal and emotional and it's not external and logical.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

14 / recommendation

Back in the day, we used to say that you should revisit your pricing strategy, overall pricing model, how much you're charging at least once in two years.

“Back in the day, we used to say that you should revisit your pricing strategy, overall pricing model, how much you're charging at least once in two years.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

15 / commitment

I could even charge, let's say, a 500K for this product, but I don't have the courage to actually go and ask for a 500K price because I kind of know a hundred K is the budget.

“I could even charge, let's say, a 500K for this product, but I don't have the courage to actually go and ask for a 500K price because I kind of know a hundred K is the budget.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

21 / observation

The way to unlock your segmentation is to think about bundling and packaging, as in you're configuring your product, based on what customers need, what they value and what they're willing to pay for.

“The way to unlock your segmentation is to think about bundling and packaging, as in you're configuring your product, based on what customers need, what they value and what they're willing to pay for.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

22 / evaluation

Because frankly, Lenny, as an entrepreneur, a company, you actually don't have a choice whether you'll have a pricing conversation with your customer.

“Because frankly, Lenny, as an entrepreneur, a company, you actually don't have a choice whether you'll have a pricing conversation with your customer.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

23 / recommendation

Then we have questions where there's some methods where we actually want to understand, are there some psychological thresholds or budgets when it comes to willingness to pay? So the way to do this is let's take your product that you're going to launch, pitch the value to your customers, have that exact sales and marketing conversation that you'd have after you launch the product, but before.

“Then we have questions where there's some methods where we actually want to understand, are there some psychological thresholds or budgets when it comes to willingness to pay? So the way to do this is let's take your product that you're going to launch, pitch the value to your customers, have that exact sales and marketing conversation that you'd have after you launch the product, but before.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

24 / recommendation

If there are sections of the book, for instance, that you like talk about it, the biggest thing that we can all do is to educate each other and everyone that there's a science behind all of this and it's not just an art, and if that's relevant, then I think message accomplished, that's also why we wrote Monetizing Innovation.

“If there are sections of the book, for instance, that you like talk about it, the biggest thing that we can all do is to educate each other and everyone that there's a science behind all of this and it's not just an art, and if that's relevant, then I think message accomplished, that's also why we wrote Monetizing Innovation.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

25 / evaluation

Take a quick example and then bring the point home and then we can talk about why this is actually essential. So taking a non SaaS or software example, if you think about Michelin, which is a tire company, probably one of the most price sensitive, let's say, markets because, think about it, you actually go into a tire store, you see all of these things look similar, but they're somehow priced differently.

“Take a quick example and then bring the point home and then we can talk about why this is actually essential. So taking a non SaaS or software example, if you think about Michelin, which is a tire company, probably one of the most price sensitive, let's say, markets because, think about it, you actually go into a tire store, you see all of these things look similar, but they're somehow priced differently.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

27 / preference

Back in the day, probably a decade ago, I used to say pricing needs to sit in finance, because my view was finance would be the counterbalance to sales, especially if you have sales coming up with pricing in a B2B situation, you can set all the pricing you want, it's human having a human conversation.

“Back in the day, probably a decade ago, I used to say pricing needs to sit in finance, because my view was finance would be the counterbalance to sales, especially if you have sales coming up with pricing in a B2B situation, you can set all the pricing you want, it's human having a human conversation.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

28 / evaluation

Let's assume the conversation in Apple was something like this, "Hey, we need to just build one product, one iPhone, because we need to maximize our market share and we will throw it out and slap on a price and hope to get the market.

“Let's assume the conversation in Apple was something like this, "Hey, we need to just build one product, one iPhone, because we need to maximize our market share and we will throw it out and slap on a price and hope to get the market.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

30 / evaluation

Much more harder game to play because you need to have all of your costs in order, supply chain, everything else, and you're fine tuning towards the volume game.

“Much more harder game to play because you need to have all of your costs in order, supply chain, everything else, and you're fine tuning towards the volume game.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

31 / preference

For instance, you can say quiet preferred on a Comfort or a Black. And that's literally why I take one of these, because I'm probably working on my Uber ride over and I like to just have the quiet and just work on things, and I'm willing to pay for that and I belong in a different segment.

“For instance, you can say quiet preferred on a Comfort or a Black. And that's literally why I take one of these, because I'm probably working on my Uber ride over and I like to just have the quiet and just work on things, and I'm willing to pay for that and I belong in a different segment.”
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast
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