PDF Price Anchoring Tiers

A successful pricing strategy that turned a PDF report business into a 9-figure company by using strategic price anchoring and tiered offerings.

Core Pricing Structure

• Three distinct tiers:
  • $12,000 - Basic PDF only
  • $50,000 - PDF + consultation call
  • $100,000 - PDF + call + priority insider updates
    • Limited to only 10 customers
    • Used as price anchor for other tiers

Strategy Results

• Generated approximately $700,000 in revenue during first year
• Most customers purchased middle tier ($50K) and basic tier ($12K)
• Top tier ($100K) primarily served as price anchor
• Enabled transition from consulting to sustainable business model

Key Success Factors

• Build once, sell multiple times model
• High-value industry (hedge funds/financial services)
• Information scarcity created value
  • Small sample size (25 people) still valuable due to market importance
  • Some information better than no information in big-dollar decisions
• Trust-based relationships
  • Leveraged existing industry connections
  • Sources trusted them with sensitive information
  • Data presented anonymously to protect sources

Business Evolution

• Started as ground-level PDF business
• Used profits to fund development of CB Insights
• Eventually rebranded from "Chubby Brain" to "CB Insights" for credibility
• Transformed into major data intelligence company