Let’s Get Vertical, Vertical: Is Vertical the New Horizontal?

Charles Hudson, SoftTech VCAndrew D’Souza, Top HatGordon Ritter, Emergence CapitalKi Mae Heussner, GigaOm (moderator)

Horizontal SaaS

• How has the cloud transformed the SaaS model?

• Are horizontal SaaS companies dead? What sectors still have room for them, if any?

Vertical SaaS Benefits

• Customer acquisition costs & metrics

• Length of time it takes to deliver ROI

• Market Share

• The “layer cake approach”

• Customer acquisition time

• Long tail benefits

Unique Challenges for Vertical SaaS

• Vertical markets limited in size

• Certain sectors where vertical doesn’t make sense?

• Parallel verticals