WinControl Point Patterns (2024)
The control point is the last tool to be thrown out before an owner ceases operations, and more importantly, you have the unfair right to offer most products a merchant needs. The result will be that one or two Vertical SaaS players may dominate in any market.
Control points are the foundation of our thesis for Vertical SaaS. We've consistently observed that small businesses crave a single point of accountability, leading to the consolidation of technology stacks into one or two core systems. If you’re a control point, that’s a very good thing. The control point is the last tool to be thrown out before an owner ceases operations, and more importantly, you have the unfair right to offer most products a merchant needs. The result will be that one or two Vertical SaaS players may dominate in any market.
If you don’t occupy a control point, the goal of a Vertical SaaS Vendor (VSV) is to build a new one, acquire an existing one, or render the old competitor irrelevant. This effort is necessary because a competent competitor will eventually gobble you up if you don't do it.
In traditional Vertical SaaS markets, there are typically one or two control points (sometimes you’ll hear these called “systems of record”). One of these is in the front office (i.e., a point-of-sale system). This control point drives sales and serves as the cash register. The front office control point’s counterpart is the back office—typically a general ledger to which everything is reconciled.
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