Akeel JabberInvestment Director, Horizen Capital · Investor, Entrepreneur and Petroleum Engineer

Choosing the right vertical can make or break your SaaS business. 🎯

11 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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1:07

In this concise advisory segment, the speaker emphasizes that each industry vertical has distinct people, pricing norms, and communication styles. He advises entrepreneurs to select a vertical they know, enjoy, and have domain expertise in, because they will be interacting with that market for an extended period. After establishing personal fit, the speaker stresses the importance of evaluating whether potential customers in that vertical can afford the SaaS pricing—illustrated by contrasting a high‑budget Ferrari dealership with a low‑budget flower shop. The core message is that successful SaaS ventures choose a vertical where the founder feels comfortable and the target customers have sufficient budget for the product.

Chapters

And through that experience, I learned like every vertical is different. The people in those verticals are different. They pay different prices. They speak different languages, right? And some people you enjoy, some people you don't enjoy. And so when it comes to choosing a vertical, I always recommend like, hey, pick a space that you've— you're familiar with. Pick a space that you're familiar with, that you understand, that you like, you have some domain expertise in. And think about like, hey, if, if I'm going to be hanging out and selling to these people, you know, potentially for years, am I going to want to hang out with these people? You know, do I understand? Do I like these people? And then I, and then I start to think like, okay, do they have the budget for what I'm selling? Right? Because you can sell the same product again to a Ferrari dealership for $500 a month where they don't bat an eye, or you can go into a— You know, a flower shop and you can't get $10 a month from the flower shop, right? And so you got to think, do they have the budget? Do I like them? Do I know this space? Then it becomes fun.