---
schema: 1
type: term
title: '**cost-plus basis**'
description: >-
  **Cost-plus basis** — in this channel's material, a pricing frame in which an
  AI product's price is anchored to the cost of the human labor it replaces,
  plus a margin, rather than to conventional software pricing such as per-seat
  licenses.
canonical: >-
  https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/cost-plus-basis-76cddf48be14
markdown: >-
  https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/cost-plus-basis-76cddf48be14.md
llms: null
parent: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt'
channel: everyinc
updated: '2026-10-23T22:12:35.346Z'
language: null
children: []
---


# \*\*cost-plus basis\*\*

Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/cost-plus-basis-76cddf48be14

Parent: [Channel index](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt)

## Definition

**Cost-plus basis** — in this channel's material, a pricing frame in which an AI product's price is anchored to the cost of the human labor it replaces, plus a margin, rather than to conventional software pricing such as per-seat licenses.

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].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).