In this episode of Verticals, Luke Sophinos and Nic Poulos sit down with Michael Saltzman, co-founder and co-CEO of EvolutionIQ, to unpack one of the biggest misconceptions in enterprise AI: Is adoption slow because the technology isn’t ready,or because the enterprise vertical AI playbook hasn’t been written yet?

EvolutionIQ is one of the first vertical AI companies to truly break through in insurance, augmenting claims decision-making inside large carriers where even small accuracy gains compound into huge financial impact at scale, culminating in a $750M exit and one of the earliest breakout outcomes in vertical AI.

We dive deep into what actually works when you’re selling and deploying AI into 10,000-person organisations: why augmentation beats automation in high-stakes workflows, how EvolutionIQ avoided getting trapped by legacy core systems, and what it takes to prove ROI fast enough to expand across an enterprise.

This episode is a deep, operator-level discussion on enterprise vertical AI: how to win adoption from frontline teams, why founder-led sales matters for longer than most people think, and why first-year revenue is often a terrible barometer for building a durable business.

Whether you’re a founder, operator, or investor building or backing vertical AI in regulated, complex industries, this episode will fundamentally change how you think about enterprise adoption, product strategy, and go-to-market.

New episodes drop every Wednesday.

In this episode of Verticals, Luke Sophinos and Nic Poulos sit down with Nate Baker, founder and CEO of Qualia and creator of Fractal, to unpack one of the most controversial questions in modern SaaS:

Is TAM actually too small - or are we asking the wrong question entirely?

Nate has built one of the most important systems of record in real estate, serving over 500,000 professionals, and has helped launch more than 150 vertical SaaS companies through Fractal. In this conversation, he challenges the way founders and VCs think about market size, moats, and defensibility in the age of AI.

We dive into systems of record vs point solutions, why vertical SaaS can monopolize entire markets, and how LLMs are changing what’s possible in software - not just automating work, but replacing it.

This episode is a deep, operator-level discussion on how vertical AI reshapes TAM, why speed now beats perfection, and what founders should prioritize if they’re building in regulated, complex industries.

Whether you’re a founder, operator, or investor building or backing vertical SaaS or vertical AI, this episode will fundamentally change how you think about market size, product strategy, and long-term advantage.

New episodes drop every Wednesday.

In this episode of Verticals, Luke Sophinos and Nic Poulos sit down with Scott Wolf, founder and former CEO of Levelset, to unpack what it really takes to build and exit a vertical SaaS company, including Levelset’s ~$500M acquisition by Procore.

Scott’s background is unusually eclectic: entrepreneurial roots, early software tinkering, a short stint as a lawyer, and a front-row seat to the construction ecosystem post-Hurricane Katrina , all of which collided into the insight that became Levelset. He scaled the business from a side project doing ~$200k in revenue to tens of millions in ARR, then navigated a fast, high-stakes M&A process that closed at the height of the 2021 market.

This conversation cuts through M&A mythology and focuses on operator reality: how acquirers think, how founders should think about timing and leverage, why the best companies are bought not sold, and what founders get wrong when they fixate on the same buyer segment (general contractors) in construction tech.

Whether you’re pre-product, scaling a vertical SaaS business, or simply trying to understand how real outcomes happen in construction tech, this episode offers a practical, founder-first playbook grounded in lived experience, not theory.

We cover:

• The origin story: why liens and construction payment disputes created a massive software wedge
• How Levelset went from transactional to SaaS, and what changed the growth curve
• Why selling to suppliers and subs (not GCs) created differentiation and enterprise scale contracts
• Construction tech “dead ends” and where Scott sees opportunity beyond the GC workflow
• How Procore first approached the category (and why they couldn’t build it in-house)
• What it looks like when an acquirer is “in heat”, speed, leverage, and market-making
• The founder decision: duty to stakeholders, timing the cycle, and why exits happen when they do
• Scott’s advice to founders: excellence first, M&A second

If you’re a founder, operator, or investor building or backing vertical SaaS, especially in construction or the built world, this is a must-listen guide to how great companies get built, differentiated, and ultimately acquired.

New episodes drop every Wednesday.