Most startups chase the same big, all-in-one SaaS ideas because they make better stories. Real money is in the cracks: small, specialized tools that fix gaps in existing software. Less competition means you can charge more.
What cracks can you fill? I've talked to a bunch of technology entrepreneurs. I've talked to investors, people who are putting money into companies. And what I find is that the cool demos and the cool press tends to go to businesses that are in the center of gravity, right? Like businesses, it's a SaaS and you can run your whole business on this. You'll never need anything else. And the trick is that that makes for a great demo, but it's almost never true. And so there are all these little cracks out there. And what I have found is that there's lots of competition going for the core, trying to be that SaaS in the middle of the business. Unless you have really totally expert domain knowledge. The most of the time though, that real expertise shows up in these crack-filling services. And those crack fillers are the ones that actually can demand a much greater premium because there's a lot less competition. They fill the crack in just the right way. So when you're looking at a business that you can go build, I would totally recommend trying to figure out what cracks you can fill in the existing ecosystem because you can go and sell.
