> Enterprise companies generally don’t like surprises. They plan their budget well in advance and having a service with a wide variable cost isn’t ideal when bu

> Enterprise companies generally don’t like surprises. They plan their budget well in advance and having a service with a wide variable cost isn’t ideal when budgeting. Possible solution: have pay-as-you-go pricing to begin with, and as soon as your active marketing pings to enterprise customers go from "no, stop bothering us" to "well, I'll bring it up to my boss", open up tiered pricing for enterprises (branded clearly as such), but priced way higher than you need to charge for each tier. Argument: "enterprise" branding makes it clear to pay-as-you-go customers that these are not the droids they're looking for. high-priced tiers let you plow income back into R&D, but enterprises don't mind paying up (as much as pay-as-you-go customers) because the person agreeing to pay is not paying with his own money but the enterprise's [0]. Pricing the tiers high also gives you wiggle room for when your own operational costs unexpectedly increase, so you don't necessarily have to renegotiate a bunch of enterprise contracts right away. [0] I can't remember who made this observation or I would cite the blog link. If somebody remembers and mentions it, I'll edit.