SaaS Vertical & Niche Selection Skill

Overview

Choosing the wrong vertical is the most common cause of SaaS plan failure (Walling foreword, Cohen). Choosing the right vertical / niche is the single most leveraged strategic decision. This skill produces the explicit choice — with named criteria, scoring, and a defensible niche-by-geography intersection.

Use When

• A new SaaS / ICT plan is being built (run BEFORE Section 03 and 04)
• An existing horizontal plan is failing and considering verticalisation
• A vertical plan is considering expanding to adjacent verticals
• A multi-country plan is considering which geographies to enter first

Do Not Use When

• The request belongs to the neighbouring route. Use the cross-sector meta skill when the decision is not specific to recurring-revenue SaaS economics or operations.
• The available evidence cannot support a responsible vertical niche selection conclusion; return the evidence gap instead of inventing one.