Vertical ERPs Choose Depth Over Breadth
Matt Brown, Co-Founder of Bonsai, on the rise of vertical ERPs
This is why focused software businesses often outperform marketplaces in execution. A single sided product like Bonsai can make every roadmap choice for one paying user, the freelancer. A marketplace has to split attention between buyers and sellers, so improving search, pricing, payouts, or rules for one side can make the product worse for the other. That tradeoff slows product clarity and makes the operating model fundamentally different.
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Bonsai is built around one persona and one wallet. Its core jobs are contracts, invoicing, payments, tax prep, and business management for freelancers, so product teams can keep stacking tools and financial products around the same user workflow.
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Marketplace products face harder balancing acts. In freelance marketplaces, helping buyers find cheaper talent, faster fulfillment, or more standardized terms can reduce seller earnings or control. The reverse is also true. That is what makes many decisions effectively zero sum.
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The same pattern shows up in other verticals. Restaurant software stacks like ChowNow and Lunchbox position against marketplace take rates by giving restaurants owned tools and lower cost payments flows. HoneyBook follows the single persona playbook on the independent business side, then adds banking and payments on top.
The next wave of vertical ERP winners will keep choosing depth over two sided breadth. The strongest companies will own one side's workflow first, then add payments, banking, credit, and automation around that user. Marketplaces will keep winning where lead generation is the product, but focused ERPs will keep winning where workflow control and monetizable cash flow matter more.