Want to figure out if you have a vertical or horizontal startup? 🤔

↳ read on 😉👇🏻

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People often ask me and Robert Kaminski:

↳ "What do you mean by 'horizontal' startups?"

To understand what a HORIZONTAL SaaS company is,

it's helpful to first understand what a VERTICAL SaaS company is.

1️⃣ Vertical SaaS Companies

→ a product focused on helping one specific persona, company type, and/or industry in one or multiple ways

→ the product capabilities address different problems that arise in different contexts for that particular segment

→ check out the picture to see the example of

Procore Technologies, a product suite built for construction companies

→ Note* = you can also be a verticalized company built around a specific ROLE (if that role doesn't really change across industries)

↳ for example, if you made a product for "accountants," it would be a vertical SaaS even if those accountants were in different types of companies.

2️⃣ Horizontal SaaS Companies

→ these products serve a variety of personas, company types, and industries

→ however, each of these different market segments shares the same context and problem

→ the horizontal product solves this common problem with the same product capability

→ check out the example of Calendly below