Vertical SaaS for Niche Industries

Vertical SaaS targets a specific industry with tailored features rather than serving all markets generically.

You build software for industries you understand deeply—construction project management, restaurant inventory systems, salon booking platforms, law firm case management, or veterinary practice software.

Success requires industry expertise, understanding workflows and pain points, technical development skills or technical co-founder, and customer development.

Pricing typically ranges from $50-500+ monthly per user or location depending on value delivered and market size.

Projects involve industry research, customer interviews with potential users, MVP development with core features, beta testing with early customers, and iterative improvement based on feedback.

Startup costs include development (if outsourcing $10,000-50,000 for MVP, less if building yourself), hosting infrastructure, business formation, and initial marketing totaling $5,000-60,000 depending on technical skills.

Building customer base involves industry events and conferences, content marketing demonstrating industry expertise, partnerships with industry associations or suppliers, referrals from satisfied customers, and potentially industry publications or directories.

Revenue comes from monthly or annual subscriptions, potentially tiered by features or usage, with additional revenue from implementation services, training, or premium support.

Operating costs include server hosting (AWS, Google Cloud), ongoing development and maintenance, customer support, marketing, and potentially sales team as you scale.

Challenges include long sales cycles for B2B software, customers resistant to changing existing systems, supporting diverse customer needs within your niche, and competition from horizontal SaaS adapting to your market.

Success requires deep industry knowledge and credibility, software that integrates with tools the industry already uses, excellent customer success ensuring retention (SaaS lives or dies on churn), scalable infrastructure, and potentially achieving category leadership in your niche before competition intensifies.

Many successful SaaS companies started as consultants or service providers who automated their own work, then productized the solution.