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The Vertical SaaS Bible
A collection of vertical SaaS case studies, industry breakdowns, scorecards, analysis, and operating learnings. Jam packed with content, it's my hope that it will help one of you build, operate, or invest in the next great vertical SaaS business!
What's Included?
- 🏭 1,000+ Industries ranked by revenue, number of companies, and overall fragmentation
- 📗 ~50 vSaaS Operating Playbooks & Lessons distilled down into bitesize learnings on the ins and outs of founding and operating a vSaaS company
- 🔍 ~50 vSaaS Company Case Studies that walkthrough different flavors of successful vertical SaaS businesses
- 🚦 5+ Industry Scorecards with rankings on GTM, size, bootstrap vs. VC-backed and more with new ones getting added every month
- 📈 500+ SaaS Investors database of active VC's looking for pre-seed, seed, series A, B, C, and growth equity deals
& much more...
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A Preview Of What's Inside...
- Theres A Better Way To Start A vSaaS Company…
- The 4 Types Of Vertical SaaS Companies
- The Classic vSaaS Playbook
- The Digital Franchise vSaaS Playbook
- The Hybrid vSaaS + M&A Playbook
- The Full Stack Playbook
- NEW: Vertical AI Co-Pilots
- NEW: Venture Buy Outs
- In The Research Phase of vSaaS Company Formation? Use This Checklist
- Step By Step Guide To Building A Vertical SaaS Business
- Picking The Right Market
- How To Size Your Market Opportunity
- Unbundling Massive Horizontal Companies
- Free Start-Up Idea: AI Agent App Stores
- Slicing Pie: An Incredible Value Driver For Brand New Companies
- Ideal Founding Team Characteristics
- What Does A Founder Actually Do?
- Create Your Value Prop: A Fill-In-The-Blanks Guide
- Building Wedge Products
- 11 Wedge Product Ideas
- Usage/Performance Based > SaaS Based For Your Initial Product
- How To Raise Your First Round Of Capital
- 1000+ Industries Ranked By Size, Companies, & Fragmentation
- Futher cuts of 1000+ industry data
- My Exact Exercise For Industry Selection
- Industry Scorecard #1: Residential Treatment Centers
- Industry Scorecard #2: HVAC
- Industry Scorecard #3: Car Dealerships
- Industry Scorecard #4: Law Firms
- Industry Scorecard #5: Machine Shops
- Industry Scorecard #6: Religious Organizations
- Industry Scorecard #7: Youth Sports
- Industry Scorecard #8: Financial Advisors
- Industry Scorecard #9: Chiropractors
- 9 Keys To Monopolizing Your Industry
- Vertical SaaS + Embedded Payments Playbook
- Vertical SaaS = Small TAM. Exposing the Vertical SaaS Myth
- The Bundle / Platform Law Of Software
- How To Build A Big Business In One Industry
- Key Focus Areas At Each Revenue Stage Of Your vSaaS Business
- What Will Kill Your Startup & What Won't
- What Do You Look For In People You Hire?
- Industry Engineer
- Stop Making Excuses & Launch Payments Already
- 5 Common Characteristics of Successful Venture-Scale vSaaS Companies
- 9 SaaS Metrics To Orient Your Business Around
- Vertical SaaS Benchmarks & Playbook Overview
- Have A Plan B / Escape Pod
- Land & Expand Strategy
- How To Identify Outlier Talent
- GTM Motion Greatly Impacts The Size of Business You Can Build
- Essential Interview Questions
- B2B Product Development Philosophies
- Build A Triple Threat vSaaS
- Using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to Build Products
- All B2B Products Eventually Converge
- Thoughts on Investment Bankers
- Vertical Specific App Stores
- Embedded FinTech Is Moving Software into a Vertical Era
- The Verticalization of Payroll
- The AI Opportunity in vSaaS
- Embedded Insurance
- Embedded Lending
- Managing Risk With Embedded Payments
- Psychology Backed Pricing Strategies
- Moving From Founder Led Sales To Employee Led Sales
- Self Interest Selling
- The Power Of Roadshows & How You Can Add Milllons In ARR With Them
- A Simple Software Sales Framework
- 5 Actionable Sales Hacks To Win More Customers Immediately
- How To Win $100K+ Deals With Account Based Marketing (ABM)
- Time To Value: The Key "Input" of Customer Retention
- Structuring Incentive Plans For Success
- How To Compete W/ Big & Legacy Industry ERP's
- Understanding VC Economics
- How To Raise Money Through Cold Emails
- Round By Round VC Benchmarks for SaaS Companies
- Market Dynamics VC's Want To See
- Strategy Roles At Start-Ups Are Bullshit
- How To Structure Your Investor Updates
- How To Structure/Run Your Board Meetings
- How To Sell Your vSaaS Business
- Interacting with Private Equity / Growth Equity Funds? These are the MUST DO’S
- BONUS LIST: 500+ SaaS Investors & VC Funds
- BONUS LIST: 70+ Vertical SaaS Growth Equity Investors
- VC's Interested In Venture Buyouts
- Constellation Software: vSaaS Holding Company
- The King of M&A + vSaaS: Brad Jacobs
- How Brad Jacobs Thinks About Industry Selection
- Other Resources on Brad Jacobs
- Harvey: Vertical AI For Law Firms
- Tribute Technology: vSaaS for Funeral Homes
- Teamshares: M&A + SMB SaaS
- Squire: vSaaS for Barber Shops
- Service Titan: vSaaS for Field Services
- nCino: vSaaS for Banks
- Pipedreams: M&A+VsaaS for Home Services
- Dutchie: vSaaS for Dispensaries
- Veeva: vSaaS for Life Sciences
- Metropolis: vSaaS + M&A for Parking Lots
- Slice: vSaaS for Pizza Shops
- EvenUp: Vertical AI for Personal Injury Law
- OpenGov: vSaaS for Local Governments
- Procore: vSaaS for Construction
- Wrapbook: vSaaS for Media Companies
- Toast: vSaaS for Restaurants
- Palantir: vSaaS for Defense
- Weave: vSaaS for Dental Practices
- Clever: IaaS for Schools
- Roofer.com: vSaaS + M&A for Roofing Companies
- Cloudbeds: vSaaS for Hotels
- DISCO: vSaaS for Law Firms
- Blackboard: vSaaS for Colleges
- Check: Embedded Payroll for vSaaS Companies
- Lula: Embedded Insurance for vSaaS Companies
- FareHarbor: vSaaS for Tourism Companies
- MindBody: vSaaS for Wellness
- Shopify: vSaaS for eCommerce
- EquipmentShare: vSaaS for Construction Rental
- Appfolio: vSaaS for Property Managers
- Epicor: vSaaS for Manufacturing
- Tithely: vSaaS for Churches
- Odeko: vSaaS for Coffee Shops
- Storable: vSaaS for Storage Units
- Cents: vSaaS for Laundromats
- Classy: vSaaS for Non Profits
- Guidewire: vSaaS for P&C Insurance
- LeagueApps: vSaaS for Youth Sports
- Monograph: vSaaS for Architecture Firms
- AtoB: Financial vSaaS for Trucking
- Shopmonkey: vSaaS for Automotive Shops
- Swiftly: vSaaS for Public Transporation
- Hebbia AI: GenAI for Research Heavy Industries
- Eren Bali: Founder of Udemy & Carbon Health
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A Few Kind Words From Folks I Respect Greatly...
"Luke is a rare gem of Vertical SaaS knowledge. He combines founder experience, an amazing network of vSaaS operators, a student of the game mindset, and a willingness to help others. Where many claim to be experts, he's a true tought leader in the space. Luke is the first person I turn to when I need to tap into the vSaaS startup community. I'll continue to eagerly follow along all the content he creates and shares. "
Brian Litvack
Founder & CEO @ LeagueApps
"Luke is an expert in all things Vertical SaaS. His case studies and breakdowns of the top Vertical SaaS companies have been instrumental in shaping how I think about building Roofer.com. His insights are a must-read for anyone building or investing in Vertical SaaS."
Nathan Matthews
Founder & CEO @ Roofer.com
"Vertical-specific software companies will create billions of dollars of opportunities across every industry. Luke is a must follow - he shares the most helpful Vertical SaaS content, insights and deep dives."
Alex Shipillo
VP Growth Marketing @ Clio
"Luke is one of the sharpest minds in Vertical SaaS. I often return to his newsletter for insights, playbooks, dynamics, and stories across hundreds of verticals. His grasp of new TAM expansion strategies and GTM tactics is exceptional. I'd encourage others looking to invest or build in software to check it out."
Evan Lyseng
Senior Analyst @ AltaML
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Thanks For Being Here.
A Bit More About Me...
I'm Luke Sophinos, a vertical SaaS founder, operator, and investor, thanks for being here...
I was previously the Founder & CEO of CourseKey, which I founded in my college dorm room and scaled to become on of the largest vertical software business for Trade Schools in the United States. I sold the business to Providence Strategic Growth (PSG) in 2024.
On the advisory side, I support vSaaS businesses and studios like Atomic.vc -- the pioneer of the venture studio model and creator of Hims & Hers (NASDAQ: HIMS) as well as OpenStore, among many others. I've co-founded two different Vertical SaaS businesses with Atomic - both currently in stealth but backed by top-tier Silicon Valley VC's. You'll here about them soon enough :-).
I'm also an early-stage investor in 15+ vertical SaaS companies including Joy (vSaaS for weddings), Supermove (vSaaS for moving companies), Gemist (vSaaS for jewelry stores) and Betr (Sports betting), to name a few.
And finally, I am an aging Thiel Fellow, class of 2016 :-).
But enough of the credibility stuff.
I know what you're going through. I've lived it.
I've had <1 week of cash. I've done big layoffs.
I've made multiple phone calls to make payroll.
I've walked into meetings where the outcome was life or death.
Quite frankly, I've made every mistake in the book over the last decade.
However, through the help of so many others, we persevered to build something special.
So why write the Vertical SaaS Bible? After 10 years as a VC-backed founder, I felt operator support was tied to traditional SaaS, and, quite frankly, was lacking for vertical SaaS founders and operators. We're a different breed - different GTM motions, different investor requirements, different Customer Success approaches, the list goes on.
The status-quo out there is about building and investing in giant horizontal SaaS solutions. I don't subscribe to that. Our community doesn't either.
So dive into the Vertical SaaS Bible! It is my hope that this resources will help one of you build, operate, or invest in the next great Vertical Software companies.