#04 The Hidden Reason AI Products Lose Money (And How to Fix Your Margins)

Amelia Wampler and CJ Cummings are the co-founders of Limitr, a usage metering and pricing runtime for AI products. Only 3% of software companies actually enforce the limits on their own pricing sheets, and around 7% of ARR leaks out every year because of it. Amelia and CJ discovered this the hard way, building an internal tool for their own AI products before one accidental discovery call turned it into a company. But when your heaviest users can be your least profitable, how do you price AI at all? Expect to learn why Limitr pivoted in four days after a single call, what most companies get wrong about AI pricing in 2026, how a customer's cost to serve jumped from $1,000 to $10,000 in weeks, why credit models are up 26% year over year across SaaS, when flat seat-based pricing still makes sense, what 200+ discovery calls taught them about validating a product, how an early-stage startup got access to senior leaders in Boston, why AI agents do the prospecting but humans write every message, why whiteboards closed conversations Zoom never could, where the line sits between co-founders and life partners and much more… ========== Guests: Amelia Wampler & CJ Cummings, founders of Limitr, a usage metering and pricing runtime for AI products, based in Boston. Connect with Amelia:   / ameliawampler   Connect with CJ:   / cj-builds   Connect with Leon:  / leonwosko   Want to have human writers create content for your LinkedIn personal brand? Check out our offer on https://www.publicative.com ========== Chapters: 00:00 Intro: Amelia Wampler & CJ Cummings, founders of Limitr 01:17 Why they pivoted 05:46 What AI companies get wrong about pricing in 2026 09:01 $1,000 to $10,000 cost to serve in weeks 10:01 How Limitr's embedded runtime works vs. traditional metering 14:27 Tier list of AI pricing models 21:39 200+ discovery calls: the biggest surprise 23:09 How an early-stage startup got access to senior leaders 24:07 AI for prospecting vs humans for outreach 27:18 The 3 conversations that shaped the product most 31:44 Hiring plans: why in-person matters 32:31 Co-founders and life partners: where's the line? 35:57 Outro ========== Human-Led Growth is the podcast where B2B tech and AI founders share how they turn human trust into revenue through reputation, relationships and measures AI cannot automate. Hosted by Leon Wosko, founder of Publicative.com. ========== Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: W7BFOD9PJT6SNXMC