Lex interviews Scott Woody, CEO and founder of Metronome, a usage-based billing platform. Scott shares his journey from academia to entrepreneurship, detailing his experiences at UC Berkeley, D.E. Shaw, and Stanford, where he studied biophysics. His tenure at Dropbox, where he tackled billing system challenges, inspired the creation of Metronome. The discussion highlights Metronome's real-time billing data capabilities, which aim to improve business efficiency and customer experience. Scott also explores the broader implications of AI in fintech, emphasizing the shift towards usage-based business models and the importance of real-time data. Notable discussion points: Metronome emerged from firsthand frustrations at Dropbox, where Scott Woody experienced how rigid billing systems slowed growth, confused customers, and blocked real-time insights. He built Metronome as a flexible, real-time billing engine that merges usage data with pricing logic—powering the monetization infrastructure for top AI companies today. Real-time billing isn’t just about invoices—it's a strategic revenue lever. For AI and SaaS businesses alike, Metronome enables teams to run dynamic experiments, optimize GPU allocation, and make last-minute decisions to hit quarterly targets—turning billing into a core growth engine. The rise of AI is accelerating a shift to usage-based models. As AI becomes specialized labor across verticals (from loan collection to customer service), companies are rapidly replatforming, and entire industries may flip from seat-based to outcome-based pricing within quarters—Metronome is positioned as the "payment processor" for this AI economy. MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION Topics: Metronome, Dropbox, Datadog, OpenAI, AI, AGI, machine learning, pricing models, financial services, business optimization, operational frameworks, analytics, financial modeling ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT 🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2 🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV 👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin TIMESTAMPS 1’05: Talent Spotting and Swag Strategy: How Scott Woody Recruited the Brightest Minds at Berkeley 7’27: From Biophysics to Startups: How Stanford and Protein Folding Led Scott into Tech 9’28: Lessons from Dropbox: Why Talent Density Beats Perks in Building Scalable Tech Teams 14’09: Solving the Billing Bottleneck: How Metronome Powers Real-Time Monetization for Modern Tech 19’45: Real-Time Revenue Intelligence: How Metronome Helps Teams Optimize Pricing, Experiments, and GPU Allocation 24’55: Optimizing AI Economics: Metronome’s Real-Time Matching of Model Usage, Customer Spend, and GPU Allocation 29’03: The Rise of Usage-Based AI: Why Real-Time Monetization Is Reshaping Business Models Across Tech 34’25: Specialized AI as Labor: Why Purpose-Built Agents Are Shaping the Future of Work and Software Integration 40’46: The Tipping Point for AI Adoption: Why Clear ROI and Competitive Pressure Are Rewriting Entire Industries 48’39: The channels used to connect with Scott & learn more about Metronome