YouSaid · the spoken record

Dave Yuan

lines on the record: 57
first: 2023-07-04
most recent: 2023-07-04
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Probably 10 or 15 factors we would look at. In making an investment, let me call up three. Three things that I think about A vertical is you start with TAM. That's probably the obvious place You're building a company sell into an end market like restaurants.”
2023-07-04 · Invest Like the Best · Dave Yuan - A Primer on Vertical Market Software - [Invest Like the Best, EP.335] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think it's somewhere in between, which is actually if you spend time with merchants and the customers. Get to the answer pretty damn quickly. It's what's the most important system? What do you spend all your time in? What's the last thing you would turn off? Those types of questions can pull forward quite easily. I think where the nuance comes is Look, most of these businesses are not going through all the hard work to build a business to sell one product As you think about the control point, you need to think about what's the next play. You take this foundation extended to.”
2023-07-04 · Invest Like the Best · Dave Yuan - A Primer on Vertical Market Software - [Invest Like the Best, EP.335] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Gives you lots of opportunity to do more for your customer and expand your offering. That's what we tend to mean. When we say vertical SAS, and to your point, there's a wide range of actually end markets that might cover in a wide range of business models as well.”
2023-07-04 · Invest Like the Best · Dave Yuan - A Primer on Vertical Market Software - [Invest Like the Best, EP.335] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Maybe there's two. Maybe there's one at the front office where revenue comes in, and maybe there's one at the back office which reconciles all the financials to pay bills and to file taxes. But generally, there's one system. People call system record system engagement. We call it control point because we want to capture. This idea of Data gravity stores the most important data of workflow gravity. It's what you do to get things done, it's what you're engaged in with every day. And finally, account. Gravity, which Simple, stupid question or idea that if you have to turn off every system as you were to go at a business, what was the system you would turn off last? And that's sort of your account gravity. That's another indicator control point. This is the system that powers your business. In that way, if you own that and occupy that space,”
2023-07-04 · Invest Like the Best · Dave Yuan - A Primer on Vertical Market Software - [Invest Like the Best, EP.335] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Start from the ground level, and you can push me forward or pull me back as much as you like. Vertical software versus horizontal software. So it's software built for a specific end industry. Now, that end industry can actually be Pretty wide expanse of characteristics. So I think most people conflate SMB and vertical software together because most of the time And merchant tends to be a local merchant, a restaurant, a hotel, a retailer. And I think that's generally true. But there also are larger verticals. So, I was on the board of a CCC that sold to auto insurance companies. Those are some of the largest companies in the US. And so there is a wide expanse of SMB to enterprise, but generally it's SMB. I think in general. We found in SMB vertical SAS is there's usually one system that's more important than the others.”
2023-07-04 · Invest Like the Best · Dave Yuan - A Primer on Vertical Market Software - [Invest Like the Best, EP.335] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's a local taqueria called Mama Coco. And it's an awesome story. The owner and the manager is taking recipes from his grandmother's recipe book. It's a family business. They're out there building. And Kandley, they're really struggling. And a big part of what allowed them to survive is extending it to online delivery. You see in good times and in bad times what software can do for these hunters. If you watch any commercial for a small business software or vertical software provider, it's always the owner on their cell phone on a beach. I think it's a nod to the fact that running these businesses is pretty damn hard and allowing these owners to get out of the drudgery and create some automation, create some space for their life is this incredibly energizing value prop. And so a big part of why I continued to invest in vertical SaaS, why I continued to pull this apart, part of it's an analytical exercise, part of it's also, I just love.”
2023-07-04 · Invest Like the Best · Dave Yuan - A Primer on Vertical Market Software - [Invest Like the Best, EP.335] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think part of this is 10, 15 years ago when we started investing in vertical software is very much a contrarian perspective. And so there's a little bit at me that wants to provide a different perspective in the world. As the world starts to appreciate these businesses a bit more, I think what really has taken over is two things. One is the business models that you can create in somebody's verticals. And we'll obviously unpack that into a lot of detail. The first wave was really interesting how you go to multi-product. But then what we're starting to see is really businesses that span beyond a single part of the value chain. That's just super interesting to me. On a more personal level, you just see what these types of software companies can do for their clients. And so I remember during COVID and I was on the board of Toast and we were going through some challenges as restaurants are effectively shutting down. And I went to our local downtown.”
2023-07-04 · Invest Like the Best · Dave Yuan - A Primer on Vertical Market Software - [Invest Like the Best, EP.335] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source