SIX WAVES OF SOFTWARE PRICING

Summary from the TLDR Founders newsletter

In the 1950s, your software arrived in a semi‑truck bolted to its hardware. Seventy‑five years and six pricing waves later, vendors bill for shelf‑less shelfware, meter compute like electricity, and blend seats with usage in hybrid plans. This author traces the journey from boxed SKUs to SaaS, the ASP flame‑out, CFOs fighting surprise overages, and why clear value metrics will decide how we price AI next.