#135: Vertical SaaS Investor Shares Proven Paths to Scale Up Big – Dave Yuan

03/14/25 • 55 min

Dave Yuan is the founder of Tidemark, an active growth equity investor focusing on vertical SaaS companies with outsized advantages that can become “control points” in their markets and grow very big. Dave and Tidemark have invested in successful companies like Toast, ServiceTitan, Karbon and Dutchie.

In this episode, Dave shares some of the most useful strategic growth frameworks for vertical SaaS companies to grow through winning market share, expanding with additional products, and even extending through an industry ecosystem serving new markets. We also talk about the impact of AI on established vertical SaaS players and how it’s both an opportunity and a thre

Tidemark supports the global community of practical vertical SaaS founders by publishing their strategic growth frameworks, their annual Vertical SaaS Benchmarketing Report, and they host the annual Vertical SaaS Collective Live conference for founders.

Quote from Dave Yuan, founder at Tidemark

“Vertical SaaS founders should not be asleep with AI. You can wave it off, view it as a toy, and say that no one’s going to trust that outcome or use it. That may have been the case, but things are changing really quickly.

“Lots of smart people are making it better every month, and you have a massive opportunity to improve it with your data and workflow.

“Jump into it to control your destiny. Don’t get caught sleeping without AI in your product in a useful way.”

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The Practical Founders Podcast

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Quote from Dave Yuan, founder at Tidemark

“Lots of smart people are making it better every month, and you have a massive opportunity to improve it with your data and workflow.

“Jump into it to control your destiny. Don’t get caught sleeping without AI in your product in a useful way.”

Links

The Practical Founders Podcast

Get the weekly Practical Founders newsletter and podcast updates at practicalfounders.com/newsletter.

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#134: When It’s Time to Close: Helping Founders Shut Down Right – Dori Yona

Dori Yona is co-founder and CEO of SimpleClosure, a technology- and people-powered company that helps founders wind down and dissolve a startup or business that is no longer viable. Shutting down a business can be complicated, costly, and risky for founders. SimpleClosure manages the unique processes with automation and expert support.

SimpleClosure has helped tech startup founders wind down over 500 startups, businesses that closed or have gone through a sale of assets. It manages the important steps of a winddown, including legal, regulatory, employees, investors, intellectual property, customers, data, and more.

In this episode, Dori shares the key considerations for SaaS founders who have run out of VC funding or need to shut down their companies for other reasons.

Quote from Dori Yona, CEO of SimpleClosure

“The biggest thing for software startup founders and CEOs is to move fast. Your time is your biggest resource in life as an entrepreneur, whether you’re venture-backed or bootstrapping. You’re spending your time, you’re spending your energy, you’re spending the best years of your career.

“So move fast, learn fast, test fast, iterate quickly, grow fast, fail fast. Ultimately, when you’re building your own business, you’re sacrificing an easy, convenient, cushy job anywhere else to take this risk.

“The faster you can grow, learn, build, and fail, the better. It’s ultimately to your advantage to make the most of your time. Our time is our most expensive resource.”

Links

The Practical Founders Podcast

Get the weekly Practical Founders newsletter and podcast updates at practicalfounders.com/newsletter.

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#136: Practical Founder Has Big Exit and Un-Retires to Build 2nd SaaS Success - Brian Dosal

Brian Dosal was the founder and CEO of BrightGauge, a software company he bootstrapped and grew to almost $10M ARR with his brother before successfully selling the company in 2019. BrightGauge was a business analytics and dashboard for key metrics for the Managed Service Provider (MSP) industry.

After his intense 9-year journey at BrightGauge, Brian “retired” to spend more time with his growing family. He enjoyed his free time but eventually returned to the software startup game with his second company, Strety.

Strety is a fast-growing SaaS business with a popular app for small businesses using the EOS® approach to manage their businesses. It has 10 employees, hundreds of customers and partners, and no outside funding. Brian brought back some of his previous team to build another sustainable and valuable software company.

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