How the term shows up In the channel's material on AI strategy, cost-plus basis appears in Mike Maples Jr.'s argument that the sharpest AI opportunity is counter-positioning: selling AI as a substitute for expensive labor rather than as another software license. On a cost-plus basis, the price a startup can anchor to is the labor cost it replaces, plus a margin — instead of the traditional software benchmark of charging per seat or per license [^1b7f0e53-e8cf-592d-91ad-f3d4e551c250]. Why it matters Maples' point is that this framing flips the usual SaaS logic: if your product does the work of an expensive employee, you can capture value relative to the wage you displace, not relative to what people pay for tools. That is why he treats business model — the how of pricing — as a genuine source of startup insight, on par with the what of the product itself [^1b7f0e53-e8cf-592d-91ad-f3d4e551c250]. - Cost-plus basis in this context: pricing anchored to the cost of the labor being replaced, plus a margin.- It underpins Maples' counter-positioning argument — AI sold as labor substitution, not a software license.- The takeaway: the business model (how you price) can be as much of an insight as the product (what you build).