The Portfolio Company That Tripled Its Price and Grew Faster

One of the most counterintuitive things I've watched happen in my portfolio: a wellness brand tripled the price of their hero product from $18 to $54. Revenue went up. Customer satisfaction went up. Returns went down.

Most founders would never try this. The conventional wisdom in DTC is to keep prices accessible, optimize for volume, and make up margin on repeat purchases. That works for some categories. But this founder saw something most people miss: her product was too cheap for the customer she was trying to reach.

At $18, the product sat in a competitive wasteland. Hundreds of similar products at similar prices. Customers treated it as disposable — easy to buy, easy to forget, easy to replace with whatever showed up next in their Instagram feed. The repeat purchase rate was terrible because there was no emotional investment in the brand.

At $54, everything changed. She reformulated slightly — better ingredients, not dramatically different but genuinely improved. Redesigned the packaging with us at Paking Duck — went from a basic bottle in a poly mailer to a custom rigid box with a magnetic closure. The product now felt like something you'd put on your bathroom shelf with pride instead of stuffing in a drawer.

The customer who buys a $54 product is fundamentally different from the customer who buys an $18 product. They're more intentional about their purchases. They research before buying. They're less price-sensitive and more experience-sensitive. And critically — they tell their friends about it. Nobody recommends a $18 commodity product to their friend group. People absolutely recommend the $54 product they love.

Her CAC actually went down because the higher price point attracted customers through word of mouth and organic search rather than discount-driven impulse buys. The contribution margin per unit tripled because the cost increase from better formulation and packaging was nowhere near 3x.

I'm not saying every brand should triple their prices. That would be stupid advice. But I am saying that most DTC founders default to pricing low because they're scared of charging what the product is worth. They think lower price means more customers, which means more revenue. In practice, low prices often attract the wrong customers — deal-seekers with no loyalty who'll leave the moment something cheaper appears.

The question I now ask every founder in my portfolio: "If you charged twice as much and redesigned the experience to justify it, would the business be better?" About half the time, the honest answer is yes. The other half are genuinely in the volume play — consumables, basics, replenishment categories. But for anything with a brand experience component, underpricing is one of the most common mistakes I see.

Price is a signal. Make sure yours is saying what you actually mean.