# Sovereign Desk — Pricing & Margin

Last updated 2026-02 · internal + external. Sections 1–3 are client-facing. Sections 4–6 are not.

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## 1. Tiers

| | **Solo** | **Firm** ← target | **Vault** |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup (one time) | **$9,500** | **$24,500** | **$48,000** |
| Monthly | **$850** | **$2,400** | **$4,800** |
| Seats | 5 | 15 | unlimited, 2 offices |
| Appliance | 32 GB unified memory | 96 GB unified memory | 2 × 96 GB, automatic failover |
| Model class | 14B–20B quantized | 30B MoE (Qwen3-Coder-30B class) | 30B MoE, redundant |
| Document review | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Intake triage + conflicts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Drafting + clause library | Colorado standard library | Custom, built from your precedent | Custom + matter-level access controls |
| Workflow builds | — | 2 per quarter | 4 per quarter |
| Support | Remote, 1 business day | Same-day, named contact | Named engineer, 4-hour response |
| Onsite | Install only | Install + annual review | Install + quarterly review |
| Security questionnaire response pack | — | ✓ | ✓ + audit export |
| Source + weights escrow | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |

**Everything includes the hardware, and the hardware is the firm's property on delivery.**

### Terms
- Setup is due 50% at signature, 50% at install acceptance.
- Monthly begins 30 days after install acceptance, billed monthly, cancel with 30 days notice.
- **Cancellation does not disable anything.** The appliance keeps running the last installed build
  forever. What lapses is support, model refreshes, clause-library maintenance, and workflow builds.
- Add-on seats beyond tier: $45/seat/month (a soft cap, not a license meter — it reflects support load).
- Additional office install: $6,500 + $600/month.
- Direct DMS connector (NetDocuments, iManage, Clio): quoted per firm, $4,000–$12,000 typical.

---

## 2. What it replaces, in dollars

Numbers below are the line items to walk through on a call using **the prospect's own invoices**.
Do not present these as universal — present them as a worksheet.

### Nine-person firm (6 attorneys, 3 staff) — the modal Firm-tier buyer

| Line item replaced or reduced | Basis | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud legal AI seats | 9 seats × $225/mo (market range $180–$250) | **$24,300** |
| Overflow document review (contract attorney / ALSP) | 2 engagements/quarter × $4,500 | **$36,000** |
| After-hours intake answering service | $340/mo, partially displaced (60%) | **$2,450** |
| **Hard, invoice-verifiable cost in scope** | | **$62,750** |

| Sovereign Desk Firm | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | 3-yr total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | $24,500 | — | — | $24,500 |
| Monthly × 12 | $28,800 | $28,800 | $28,800 | $86,400 |
| **Total** | **$53,300** | **$28,800** | **$28,800** | **$110,900** |
| **vs. $62,750/yr in scope** | **+$9,450** | **+$33,950** | **+$33,950** | **+$77,350** |

> Note: `GTM.md` and `landing.html` quote the two-line conservative version of this worksheet
> ($24,300 + $36,000 = $60,300, net +$7,000 year one / +$31,500 year two). The answering-service
> line is included here but left out of public material because it is the softest of the three.

### Soft value — mention once, never lead with it
| | Basis | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Partner capacity recovered | 4 hrs/wk first-pass review → 50% recovered = 92 hrs × $385 | ~$35,000 per partner |
| One institutional client retained on the security answer | 1 PE portco engagement | $40,000–$250,000 |
| Missed-limitations malpractice avoided | Frequency low, severity total | unquantifiable, real |

### Three-person CPA firm (Solo tier)
| Replaced | Annual |
|---|---|
| 3 seats cloud AI × $200/mo | $7,200 |
| Seasonal contract preparer overflow (partial) | $9,000 |
| **In scope** | **$16,200** |
| Sovereign Desk Solo, year 1 ($9,500 + $10,200) | $19,700 |
| Year 2+ | $10,200 |

Year one is $3,500 underwater; year two is +$6,000 and every year after. Sell Solo on §7216 and
ownership, **not** on year-one savings. If the buyer needs a year-one win, they are not a Solo
buyer — they are a "not yet."

---

## 3. Why there is no per-seat price

Per-seat pricing is how a vendor converts your growth into their revenue. It also requires a license
server, which requires a phone-home, which destroys the only claim this product makes. The seat
counts above are support-load guidance, not enforcement. There is no code in the product that counts
users, because there is no code in the product that talks to me.

---

## 4. Cost of goods — internal

### Firm tier (the volume tier)

| Component | Cost |
|---|---|
| Appliance: 96 GB unified-memory workstation | $5,600 |
| UPS, rack shelf or under-desk mount, cabling | $410 |
| SSD for model + clause library storage | $260 |
| Shipping / pickup | $150 |
| Install day: travel, 6 hours onsite | $340 (fuel, parking, contingency) |
| Precedent ingestion + clause-library build (8 hrs of Mike) | opportunity cost, not cash |
| **Cash COGS** | **$6,760** |

**Setup gross margin: $24,500 − $6,760 = $17,740 → 72.4%**

### Monthly cost to serve, Firm tier

| Item | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Remote monitoring + patch cycle (amortized across accounts) | $35 |
| Model refresh compute — runs on the existing RIG fleet (blackwell + LAN nodes), marginal cost is power | $60 |
| Support hours: 2 hrs/mo average at $150 loaded opportunity cost | $300 |
| Spare-parts reserve (5% of appliance / 36 months) | $8 |
| **Cost to serve** | **$403** |

**Monthly gross margin: $2,400 − $403 = $1,997 → 83.2%**

### Per-tier summary

| Tier | Setup COGS | Setup GM | Monthly cost | Monthly GM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solo | $3,150 | $6,350 (66.8%) | $240 | $610 (71.8%) |
| **Firm** | **$6,760** | **$17,740 (72.4%)** | **$403** | **$1,997 (83.2%)** |
| Vault | $14,900 | $33,100 (69.0%) | $915 | $3,885 (80.9%) |

---

## 5. Unit economics and the shape of the business

**Firm-tier customer, 3-year value:**
- Revenue: $24,500 + ($2,400 × 36) = **$110,900**
- COGS: $6,760 + ($403 × 36) = **$21,268**
- **Gross profit: $89,632 · 80.8% blended margin**

**Payback:** immediate. Setup is cash-positive on install day — the hardware is paid for out of the
setup fee with $17,740 left over. There is no CAC recovery period, which is the entire reason this
model works for a solo operator with no outside capital.

**Effective CAC:** ~$1,900 per close, assuming founder-sent outbound, a 5% list-to-close rate on a
40-account list, and time valued at $150/hr. Recovered on day one.

**Capacity ceiling, honest version:**

| Accounts | MRR | Annual recurring | Support load |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | $12,000 | $144,000 | 10 hrs/mo — trivial |
| 12 | $28,800 | $345,600 | 24 hrs/mo — comfortable solo |
| 20 | $48,000 | $576,000 | 40 hrs/mo — needs a part-time engineer |
| 30 | $72,000 | $864,000 | needs a real second person |

**Hard stop: 20 accounts solo.** Past that, either hire or stop selling. Selling past your support
capacity is how a good margin turns into a bad reputation, and in a market of Colorado firms that
all know each other, reputation is the only distribution channel there is.

**Break-even on the whole line:** the first install covers the fleet hardware already owned. Two
Firm-tier accounts ($4,800 MRR) cover all fixed cost for this offering with room. Everything after
account #2 is profit.

---

## 6. Discounting policy

| Situation | Allowed |
|---|---|
| First 3 reference customers | 20% off setup ($19,600) in exchange for a written, usable case study and two named referrals |
| Multi-year prepay | 10% off 12 months of monthly, paid upfront |
| Bar association / COCPA sponsor referral | 5% off setup, both sides |
| Nonprofit legal aid | 40% off, one account per year, budget it as marketing |
| Anything else | **No.** |

Never discount the monthly to win a deal. The monthly is the support relationship, and a discounted
support relationship becomes a resented one by month four. If the price is the blocker, move the
buyer down a tier — that is what tiers are for.