Where can we use AI?
This can produce many possibilities without establishing which problem matters, who needs the product, or why they would pay.
Vertical AI
Start with a narrow problem.
Build something indispensable.
LaunchWorks believes in focused AI products that do useful work for identifiable customers. Start with a recurring task that matters, then determine whether AI can materially improve the way it gets done.
Why we believe in vertical AI
Specific customers.
Specific work.
Measurable value.
Vertical AI is software shaped around the needs of a particular industry or domain. For LaunchWorks, the opportunity becomes most compelling when that focus extends to a clearly defined workflow and customer.
“AI for businesses” leaves many commercial questions open. A product that helps commercial roofing contractors prepare estimates gives us a concrete task to investigate, people to speak with, and an outcome to measure.
We prefer to begin with customer understanding: what people have to do, how they do it today, what makes it difficult, and what an improvement would be worth.
What expensive task needs a better way?
Identify a necessary workflow, understand the customer, and test whether AI can reduce effort or improve the result under realistic conditions.
The advantages of focus
Niche is a feature.
Execution makes it valuable.
A narrow market does not guarantee a strong business. It gives the team a more concrete set of questions to answer and a focused context in which to build, test, and learn.
Understand the workflow.
A focused product can be designed around the language, inputs, constraints, and exceptions of a particular task. That context helps define what a useful result actually looks like.
Questions & outcome
- What happens before and after this task?
- Which industry-specific requirements shape the output?
- Where do exceptions require human judgment?
What to establish: A product that fits how the customer works.
Name the customer.
A clearly defined customer makes research, positioning, and sales more concrete. Identify who performs the work, who experiences its consequences, and who has the authority to pay for improvement.
Questions & outcome
- Which role and company type have the strongest need?
- Who uses the product and who owns the budget?
- Can we identify the first 100 potential customers?
What to establish: A specific market and a practical starting point for customer conversations.
Make the value measurable.
Connect the product to a recurring business task and compare the process before and after adoption. Include review, corrections, and setup so the improvement reflects the whole workflow.
Questions & outcome
- What changes in time, labor, quality, or throughput?
- How frequently does the task occur?
- Which improvement matters enough for the buyer to act?
What to establish: A customer business case grounded in observed work.
Learn from relevant feedback.
Customers performing similar work can help reveal recurring needs and distinguish them from one-off requests. Use their differences as evidence too: a shared industry does not guarantee an identical workflow.
Questions & outcome
- Which needs repeat across customers?
- What varies by company size, process, or system?
- Are we building a reusable product or custom work for each account?
What to establish: A clearer product scope and more disciplined priorities.
Earn a place in the process.
A product becomes more useful when it reliably fits the customer’s operating routine. Relevant integrations, context, and support can deepen that fit, but they need to create genuine customer value.
Questions & outcome
- Does the product work with the systems customers already use?
- Can customers trust and review its output?
- Does adoption make the process easier rather than adding another disconnected tool?
What to establish: A dependable workflow relationship built through use.
Expand from what you learn.
A narrow starting point can create a basis for adjacent tasks, roles, or markets. Expansion should follow customer evidence and a clear ability to deliver value beyond the original workflow.
Questions & outcome
- What do customers need immediately before or after this task?
- Can existing relationships and product knowledge support the next offer?
- What new requirements would expansion introduce?
What to establish: A logical growth path that builds on a proven foothold.
Illustrative opportunity
Commercial roofing estimates.
A concrete task to investigate.
Rather than beginning with a general document-processing platform, imagine a tool built to help a contractor prepare a necessary estimate. The customer, workflow, and buying questions become more specific.
Understand the work.
Observe how the contractor gathers information, prepares the estimate, checks it, and approves the result. Learn what varies across jobs and where omissions create rework.
Test the improvement.
If the hypothesis is that four hours of work can become twenty minutes, measure the complete process—including review and correction. These figures are an illustrative test, not a proven result.
Find the buyer.
Identify who manages estimating, who controls software spending, and what would justify adoption. Time saved must translate into an outcome the business actually values.
Confirm continued value.
Test realistic jobs and observe repeat use. A useful product must fit the contractor’s process and deliver reliable enough results to support an ongoing paid relationship.
The industry gives the product context. The work and the customer’s economics give it purpose.
What makes an opportunity attractive
Necessary work.
A practical path to a business.
A recurring, meaningful task
Look for work customers already need to complete and already spend time, money, or labor addressing. Frequency matters alongside the consequences of doing the task poorly.
AI that changes the effort required
We are particularly interested when AI performs more of the task and people shift toward review, approval, and exception handling. Measure the actual change rather than the initial output speed.
Accessible customers
A market needs a realistic route to buyers. Industry networks, associations, publications, events, and software ecosystems may provide access, depending on the customer.
Reliable output
Industry context can create demanding quality requirements. Understand where errors matter, what review is needed, and how the product behaves on difficult cases.
Sustainable delivery
Include AI usage, integrations, onboarding, support, and manual intervention in the economics. A narrow product still needs a price and delivery model that can support the business.
A reason to keep using it
Value should persist beyond a first demonstration. Learn whether customers return because the product handles necessary work and whether that benefit supports continued payment.
Earn the right to expand
Own one workflow.
Learn what belongs next.
The first product does not have to serve every customer or complete every task. A strong starting point gives the team a way to learn where additional value can be created.
Adjacent tasks
Explore work immediately before or after the original task. Determine whether the same buyer wants the improvement and whether the existing product can support it.
Additional roles
A product adopted by one role may create opportunities elsewhere in the organization. Validate the new user’s needs, approval process, and definition of value.
Related customer segments
Consider customers with similar workflows, but test their differences. Shared terminology or an adjacent industry does not establish identical requirements.
Evidence before expansion
Protect the quality of the original workflow. Expand when customer demand, delivery capacity, and economics support the next step rather than simply increasing the product’s scope.
The LaunchWorks approach
Start indispensable.
Build from there.
We would rather deeply understand a clearly defined customer group than vaguely understand a much larger audience. That focus helps us evaluate the task, validate the value, and develop a practical commercial plan.
LaunchWorks works with builders to turn promising AI software into focused companies. Customer evidence informs positioning, pricing, distribution, launch, and the systems needed for consistent delivery.
The ambition is a durable business built around useful work. Starting narrow gives us a concrete place to begin.
Explore how to validate the opportunity →