1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: JP Persico, shuckerVC (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s do one more example of what you’ve invested in.

JP Persico: Sure. Our latest investment is Atlas. It’s deep B2B software. I met them through the 500 Global mentorship program. At first, I wasn’t sure what they were doing. But the more we talked, the more I saw they were domain experts in product management.

They’re solving how companies price themselves to the market. They’re thinking about pricing with the 4 Ps of marketing, applied to software. The place is SaaS, but the real question is how do you price, promote, and help users understand features?

They’ve built an agent that lives in software and identifies how people use it—what features they engage with—so companies can upsell, build, and cross-sell more effectively.

They’re also exploring how to sell AI agents. Do you sell them as resources like employees? Or do you price them based on outcomes—like solving an HR or payroll issue? Instead of payroll, think of it as value delivered: hours saved, efficiency gained.

They’re moving away from traditional pricing models like a tiered SaaS menu (basic, enterprise, platinum) and toward holistic, outcome-based pricing.

Sramana Mitra: This is a very interesting and timely subject. Companies like ServiceNow and Atlassian are using agents extensively. They’re building agents into their subscriptions rather than using usage-based or impact-based pricing. I’ve also spoken with a cybersecurity startup that is also using agents extensively in their software, but it’s all being built in to the subscription.

What I’m hearing is that buyers prefer predictability and consistency in budgeting. What are you seeing in the market through the lens of this company?

JP Persico: It’s a good observation. There is definitely a preference for predictable pricing and budgeting. We saw a similar shift with cloud computing. Companies moved from owning their own servers to buying bandwidth, compute, or CPUs. There has always been tension between buyers and sellers over unit economics—this existed before AI and token-based models.

We are seeing a move toward pricing that feels like a single unit or flat rate that’s easier to sell internally. At the same time, there’s a move away from seat-based pricing, which becomes complicated when agents perform tasks across multiple users.

Discussions around outcome-based pricing have become more common. It’s still challenging to find the right model. Startups are getting smarter in how they talk to customers. Thanks to better technology, pricing can be more customized. I think we’ll see less pricing transparency in the future.

Sramana Mitra: That seems a bit counter to what makes a good venture-scale startup—repeatability.

JP Persico: Not necessarily. What matters is revenue growth outpacing cost growth. If you deploy agents but the costs outweigh the returns, then yes, venture-scale returns are at risk. But if the revenue continues to grow predictably, then it’s still viable.

More importantly, we’ll need to rethink how we measure these companies. We might need to redefine KPIs beyond traditional SaaS metrics.

Sramana Mitra: I remember the shift from licensed software to SaaS very clearly. It took time, but eventually Wall Street loved the model. Predictable revenue metrics like MRR and ARR became very attractive.

JP Persico: Yes, SaaS revolutionized software as a distribution model, moving from on-premise licenses to cloud-based delivery. It allowed fast feature updates and user scalability.

Sramana Mitra: From a delivery standpoint, yes. But much of SaaS’s adoption was driven by its pricing model.

JP Persico: Absolutely. VCs and Wall Street loved the recurring, predictable revenue.

Sramana Mitra: Anyway, it’s a longer conversation. I have three pitches lined up. JP, great to meet you. We’ll connect again in a few months. The market is moving so fast, we’ll have a lot more to talk about.

JP Persico: Sounds good. Great to meet you too.

Part 1 | Part 2

This segment is part 3 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: JP Persico, shuckerVC
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