How to price your startup: the Van Westendorp survey in 4 questions

Most founders copy a competitor's price. It feels safe, but it often leaves money on the table or attracts the wrong customer. The Van Westendorp survey, from 1976, measures how customers perceive price — before you launch.

The 4 questions

• At what price would it be so cheap you'd doubt its quality?
• At what price would it be a bargain?
• At what price does it start to feel expensive, but you'd still consider it?
• At what price would it be too expensive to consider?

How to read the result

Answers become four cumulative curves. Where "too cheap" crosses "not a bargain" is the acceptable floor; where "too expensive" crosses "not expensive" is the ceiling. Between them sits the acceptable price range. The optimal price point is where the fewest people find it too cheap or too expensive.

Three anchors to cross-check

• Cost-plus: the floor. Never price below it.
• Market median: what customers are used to paying.
• Value-based: a share (10–30% is common in B2B software) of the money your product saves or makes for the customer.

In practice

Use the survey range for your entry tier, cost as the floor and value-based pricing to design the top tier. Three plans, one clear call to action per plan.

The pricing strategy tool builds the curves from answers pasted from a spreadsheet and shows the three anchors side by side.