Look for service-heavy, non-technical industries ready for technology disruption
Insight from Tomer London
When to use
When choosing which market or niche to target
Don't do this
Targeting too broad a market without clear differentiation
4 Founders Who Did This
Look for service-heavy, non-technical industries ready for technology disruption | Evidence: By 2012, the payroll industry remained service-heavy and non-technical despite consumers trusting online banking. This created an opening for a technology-first alternative. Timing proved fortunate as digital financial services skepticism had largely disappeared.
Moved from fintech (Cash App) to healthcare (Carbon Health) to medical billing (Substrate), each time targeting service-heavy industries with outdated technology and heavy manual processes
Identified that 3M US businesses were doing payroll manually and top 10 providers only controlled 55% of SMB payroll market, with 29% using 10+ year old systems
Chose accounting industry specifically because services are standardized and uniform across all firms, unlike bespoke industries like web design or marketing where every project differs