{
  "_meta": {
    "source": "https://mtb.xyz/posts/topic/vertical-software.json",
    "topic": "vertical-software",
    "generated_at": "2026-05-15T00:18:21.952Z",
    "count": 18,
    "parent": "https://mtb.xyz/posts.json",
    "author": {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "Matt Brown",
      "url": "https://mtb.xyz/",
      "jobTitle": "Investor",
      "worksFor": "Matrix Partners",
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  "posts": [
    {
      "title": "Vertical software already won the context graph",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/context-graph-vertical-software",
      "year": "2026",
      "tags": [
        "vertical-software",
        "ai",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "isNew": true,
      "isPopular": true,
      "featured": true,
      "featured_order": 10,
      "description": "Vertical software already owns the most valuable context graphs",
      "summary": "An argument that the AI-era \"context graph\" (the relationships between customer, transaction, and operational data that make an AI agent actually useful) is something vertical software has been compounding for a decade. Frames vertical SaaS as the incumbent winner of a battle horizontal AI builders are only now realizing they need to fight.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/context-graph-vertical-software.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Your data model is your destiny",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/your-data-model-is-your-destiny",
      "year": "2025",
      "tags": [
        "frameworks",
        "vertical-software"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "featured": true,
      "featured_order": 1,
      "description": "When code is commoditized, your data model is the last durable moat",
      "summary": "As code becomes cheap and software increasingly commoditized, the durable competitive moat for vertical software shifts from feature differentiation to the structure and depth of the underlying data model. Data-model design decisions compound over years and become harder to copy than UI or workflow.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/your-data-model-is-your-destiny.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Vertical AI: beware what you wrap",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/vertical-ai-beware-what-you-wrap",
      "year": "2025",
      "tags": [
        "vertical-software",
        "ai",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "ai",
      "featured": true,
      "featured_order": 9,
      "isPopular": true,
      "description": "AI commoditizes fast. The moat is the system of record, not the model",
      "summary": "A cautionary frame for vertical AI products that wrap a model as their core value. The model layer commoditizes quickly while durable advantage stays at the system-of-record layer, namely the proprietary data, workflows, and integrations that AI can only augment, not replace.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/vertical-ai-beware-what-you-wrap.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Pricing payments in vertical software",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/secrets-pricing-payments",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "payments",
        "vertical-software",
        "fintech",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "payments",
      "description": "How to price payments inside vertical software so margins survive",
      "summary": "A practical guide for vertical software companies pricing payments. Covers the difference between rebate-based and markup-based pricing, why the rebate side of the take-rate matters more than the gross interchange figure, and how to align payment pricing with customer segments without leaving margin on the table.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/secrets-pricing-payments.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "verticalsoftware.fyi",
      "url": "https://www.verticalsoftware.fyi",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "vertical-software"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "isPopular": true,
      "description": "A reference site cataloging public vertical software companies by category",
      "summary": "A reference website cataloging public vertical software companies organized by category. The site is a research tool for Matt's vertical software investing thesis, exposing the population of category-defining vertical SaaS companies and the data behind them.",
      "platform": "www.verticalsoftware.fyi",
      "is_external": false
    },
    {
      "title": "Invisible asymptotes in vertical software",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/invisible-asymptotes-vertical-software",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "vertical-software",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "featured": true,
      "featured_order": 8,
      "description": "Every generation of vertical software must solve harder problems to win",
      "summary": "Each successive generation of vertical software has to clear a higher bar to find a defensible wedge. Earlier wins came from digitization and basic workflow. Today's vertical winners must solve harder problems like embedded finance, AI-native workflows, and integrated data layers to break through.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/invisible-asymptotes-vertical-software.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Investing in Rainforest",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/rainforest",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "investing",
        "payments",
        "fintech",
        "vertical-software"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "investing",
      "description": "Why Matrix invested in Rainforest, a payfac built for vertical software",
      "summary": "Matt's investment memo for Rainforest, a next-generation payment facilitator built for vertical software platforms. Explains why the legacy payfac stack is structurally inadequate for VERPs and how Rainforest's product-led approach repositions payfac infrastructure as a developer experience rather than a sales-driven SaaS sale.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/rainforest.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Data on fintech adoption in vertical software",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/fintech-adoption-vertical-software",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "vertical-software",
        "fintech"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "description": "Hard data on how vertical software companies are adopting fintech",
      "summary": "A data-driven look at the adoption of fintech features inside vertical software companies. Walks through the share of vertical SaaS revenue now coming from payments, lending, and other financial products, and what the curve says about which categories are early, mid, and saturated.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/fintech-adoption-vertical-software.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "A chat with Toast's GM of Fintech",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/michel-rbeiz-toast",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "fintech",
        "vertical-software",
        "payments"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "fintech",
      "description": "An interview with Toast's fintech GM on building fintech inside vSaaS",
      "summary": "A conversation with Michel Rbeiz, GM of Fintech at Toast, on building a fintech business inside a vertical software company. Covers Toast Capital's underwriting model, the difference between launching payments and launching credit, and what operational muscles vSaaS companies need to build to win at fintech.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/michel-rbeiz-toast.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Dark software",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/dark-software",
      "year": "2024",
      "tags": [
        "vertical-software",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "featured": true,
      "featured_order": 11,
      "description": "When software is cheap and distribution is expensive, bundle, don't build",
      "summary": "As building software becomes cheap, distribution becomes the binding constraint. The right strategy in many vertical markets isn't to build a new product but to bundle existing capabilities behind an established distribution channel. \"Dark software\" wins on access, not innovation.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/dark-software.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "B2B payments aren't payments, they're workflows",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/b2b-payments-workflows",
      "year": "2023",
      "tags": [
        "payments",
        "vertical-software",
        "frameworks",
        "fintech"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "payments",
      "featured": true,
      "featured_order": 2,
      "description": "The real money in B2B payments is in the workflow, not the transaction",
      "summary": "B2B payments are workflow problems, not transaction-routing problems. The value capture (and the reason vertical software wins) lives in the approval, reconciliation, and AP/AR workflows surrounding a transaction, not in the rails themselves.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/b2b-payments-workflows.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Vertical, horizontal, and ghost markets",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/ghost-markets",
      "year": "2023",
      "tags": [
        "frameworks",
        "vertical-software"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "isPopular": true,
      "description": "How to tell a real market from a ghost market that disappears under you",
      "summary": "A framework for distinguishing real markets from \"ghost markets\" that look like categories but don't sustain product-market fit. The post defines vertical and horizontal markets, then introduces the ghost-market concept to describe markets where TAM analysis works but durable willingness to pay does not.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/ghost-markets.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "The iron triangle of embedded fintech",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/iron-triangle-embedded-fintech",
      "year": "2023",
      "tags": [
        "fintech",
        "frameworks",
        "vertical-software"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "fintech",
      "description": "The three constraints embedded fintech can't optimize at once",
      "summary": "Embedded fintech operators face an iron triangle: compliance ownership, unit economics, and customer experience. The piece argues that builders can win on at most two of these simultaneously and that the choice of which to compromise determines the entire shape of the business.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/iron-triangle-embedded-fintech.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "The power of point-of-sale products",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/the-power-of-point-of-sale-products",
      "year": "2022",
      "tags": [
        "payments",
        "vertical-software",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "payments",
      "description": "Why the point of sale is the most underrated wedge in vertical software",
      "summary": "An argument that the point of sale is the most under-priced wedge into vertical workflows. The post explains why owning the POS moment yields outsized data, payment, and workflow integration leverage compared to other entry points, and walks through how vertical software companies should think about POS as a category-defining lever.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/the-power-of-point-of-sale-products.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Undifferentiated heavy lifting",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/undifferentiated-heavy-lifting-in",
      "year": "2022",
      "tags": [
        "frameworks",
        "fintech",
        "vertical-software"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "fintech",
      "featured": true,
      "featured_order": 12,
      "description": "Fintech infra rarely differentiates, so stop building it",
      "summary": "Infrastructure capabilities like KYC, ledgering, ACH plumbing, and core compliance rarely differentiate a customer-facing fintech product. The right move is to buy or partner for that layer and reinvest engineering effort in the experience, distribution, or risk model that actually compounds.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/undifferentiated-heavy-lifting-in.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "VERP product strategy",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/verp-product-strategy-vertical-software-payments",
      "year": "2022",
      "tags": [
        "vertical-software",
        "frameworks",
        "payments",
        "fintech"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "isPopular": true,
      "description": "Product strategy for vertical-software companies that monetize via payments",
      "summary": "Matt's foundational VERP (Vertical Software + Payments) framework. The post defines the VERP category, lays out the product-strategy decisions that distinguish strong from weak VERPs, and connects the framework to broader patterns in how vertical software companies should sequence feature, payment, and lending launches.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/verp-product-strategy-vertical-software-payments.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "Building category-defining VERPs",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/how-to-build-a-category-defining-verp",
      "year": "2022",
      "tags": [
        "vertical-software",
        "payments",
        "fintech",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "description": "What it takes to build a category-defining VERP",
      "summary": "A step-through of what it takes to build a category-defining vertical ERP (VERP), from product strategy through fintech monetization. The post extends the VERP framework with the playbook details that distinguish category-defining VERPs from solid-but-mediocre ones, focusing on the sequencing of feature, payment, and lending product launches.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/how-to-build-a-category-defining-verp.md"
    },
    {
      "title": "The golden age of vertical ERPs",
      "url": "https://notes.mtb.xyz/p/the-golden-age-of-vertical-erps",
      "year": "2022",
      "tags": [
        "vertical-software",
        "frameworks"
      ],
      "primary_topic": "vertical-software",
      "description": "Why this is the golden age for vertical ERPs",
      "summary": "A big-picture frame for why the current era is uniquely favorable for vertical ERP companies. The post argues that the combination of cloud maturity, embedded fintech availability, and SMB digitization momentum has opened a once-per-generation window for vertical-ERP companies to become category-defining incumbents.",
      "platform": "notes.mtb.xyz",
      "is_external": false,
      "markdown_url": "/posts/the-golden-age-of-vertical-erps.md"
    }
  ]
}