2 posts tagged with "Startup Strategy"

TL;DR​

Vertical SaaS is SaaS built for a specific niche. If you’re building software for wedding photographers, ecommerce pet brands, or boutique gyms — you’re building vertical SaaS.

It’s the opposite of a generalist tool like Notion, Google Sheets or Slack.

This piece unpacks what vertical SaaS is, how it's different from horizontal SaaS, and why it's a massive opportunity for founders in the next decade. Plus: a breakdown of vertical SaaS examples, public companies, and embedded payments plays.

Finding Product-Market Fit: Lessons From Doing the Hard Way ( My Skull vs Concrete)​

"Product/market fit occurs when you feel like you're strapped to a rocket. Not because you landed a $15K pilot, not because 50 people told you your idea is great, and definitely not because a company said they would pay $1,000 (but meant $100, yep these all actually happened, to add to it that stakeholder left, so remember who you interview and sell to and what happens if they leave really matters). PMF isn't revenue, even bad products or services can make money.

It's repeat usage. Retention. Pull from the market, not push. Not customer acquisition costs that's more than Life time value.

How do I know?

• I’ve chased vanity signals, people want to be nice, they’ll tell you they’d use it. They lie.
• I’ve burned months building features that I wanted to believe were painkillers, but were vitamins and or the unit economics didn’t work, thinking I could brute-force my way to product/market fit.

This post is what I wish I'd read earlier. A no-BS guide to product market fit stages, lean product development, and the frameworks that actually help you get traction.