E21: The Power of Pricing with Alvaro Morales of Orb

In this episode, Pete speaks with Alvaro Morales, the co-founder and CEO of Orb, who shares his journey from being an engineer to becoming the founder of a flexible billing engine for modern software pricing. Alvaro traces his path from Lima, Peru to San Francisco, discussing the rise of startups in his home city as well as his early engineering experiences at Yahoo, Palantir and Asana.  His early days founding Orb were not without challenges, especially when it came to signing up customers and building trust. However, Orb’s customer-centric and collaborative approach helped them build strong relationships and turn early customers into champions. Pete and Alvaro also discuss the shift to usage-based pricing in the AI world and how Orb supports customers in implementing these pricing schemes. Listen in for a fantastic conversation!Highlights:[00:45] - Alvaro discussed his origins in Lima and what the tech world is like in Peru.[3:36] - We dig into what Alvaro learned from early engineering internships at Yahoo, Palantir and Asana.[6:55] - Alvaro shares the key insight that led him to start Orb.[10:16] - We discuss encouraging flexibility and experimentation of pricing and any downsides it can create.[12:27] - I ask Alvaro how he worked with design partners and started signing early customers.[17:42] - We talk about who was involved in their customer-acquisition and relationship building conversations.[18:20] - Alvaro shares insights into usage-based pricing and how it applies to the AI world.[22:35] - We discuss the biggest challenges in transitioning from engineer-founder to CEO.-- Mark your calendars for May 12-14, 2026 and join us for Data Council AI, the technical conference built by engineers for engineers. It's the only event where you'll be able to connect with 2,000+ practitioners for 3 full days of technical deep dives, battle-tested architectures and production insights in San Francisco, the heart of the AI world. Visit us at https://www.datacouncil.ai/ for the latest updates or subscribe to the newsletter as we release more details about the 2026 event!

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