Vertical SaaS & FinTech that Powers Small Business GDP
Small businesses comprise nearly half (46%) of the American labor force and account for 44% of the country's GDP. In the past 25 years, small businesses have created more than 12.9 million jobs, representing around two-thirds of all new jobs added to the U.S. economy during this period. - Forbes
Investment & Advisory Portfolio
mission
EQJ Ventures focuses on vertical software companies that are in the early stage of growth innovation (seed and/or series a-b) which are Multi-Product From Go (MPFG). MPFG companies quickly get to $100m+ ARR by having a hyper focused Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and launching many products (e.g., add-ons) early in their journey and leveraging technology from partnerships (e.g., FinTech) to quickly scale.
These vertical SaaS companies are not only the ‘end to end operating systems’, but they will connect the value chain across an entire SMB business. EQJ Ventures will have a gravity toward investments in software companies that are hyper-focused on building solutions that can run the entire business for an SMB.
focus
Vertical | Horizontal
SaaS that focuses on a specific industry and many sub categories within that industry (e.g., the Trades and many sub-categories within the trades like plumbing, HVAC, electrical, mechanical, roofing, flooring, water treatment, lawn, pest control, etc.).
Vertical | Vertical
SaaS that focuses on a specific industry and just one or a few very close adjacents (e.g., the Trades and one specific vertical or a few tied to one like roofing + gutter). These SaaS companies strive for ‘winner takes all’ (i.e., >40% market share).
FinTech | EmbeddedTech
Financial Technology and other solutions that help power SaaS businesses (e.g., payments, payroll, expense management, fuel cards, etc.).
impact
01 - TAM Expansion
Is my current TAM enough? What are the best markets to enter to grow TAM efficiently? How do I appropriately evaluate other markets and S&M/R&D attention vs. my current market?
02 - ACV Growth
Should I go up-market? What are the best add-on products to create and how do I do this - buy, build, partner? What products/features should I build to get more users/customer?
03 - GTM Acceleration
How do I construct my inbound, outbound and up-sell teams? How do partnerships fit into our growth? How much inbound ARR can channel partnerships create and how do I prioritize partners?
