Vertical ERPs Control Money Flows
Matt Brown, Co-Founder of Bonsai, on the rise of vertical ERPs
The winning wedge for a vertical ERP is usually not broad software coverage, it is control over a messy point where work turns into dollars. That is where a product stops being a record of the business and starts helping decide who gets paid, when they get paid, and through which rail. Once the software sits at that handoff, it can layer in payments, payroll, faster payouts, lending, and accounts.
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The best starting points are narrow workflows with ugly money logic. In restaurants that can mean tip pooling and routing. In travel it can mean deposits collected months early, installment plans, and payouts to many local suppliers in different formats and currencies.
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This is why payroll and payouts are such prized expansion paths. Payroll products keep customers for a long time, then add transaction revenue on top through payment processing, instant transfers, FX, interchange, and other financial services attached to the same fund flows.
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The same pattern shows up across categories. HoneyBook started with proposals, contracts, and invoicing for solopreneurs, then added checking and debit products. Contractor payroll platforms bundle compliance and workflow around payments, while embedded payroll APIs let vertical SaaS companies pull that logic in house.
Going forward, more vertical software companies will start from one high pain money adjacent task, then expand outward until the system becomes the operating account for the whole business. The market will reward products that shorten time to money and collapse fragmented steps into one screen, because that is where software turns into durable financial infrastructure.