Luke Sophinos: From Thiel Fellow to $27M Vertical SaaS Startup

This is how Luke got a $100,000 investment to drop out of college and turned it into a $27 million startup. He breaks down how to identify and build your own vertical SaaS business too.

📚 1,800 Pitch Decks (Free) → deck-database.carrd.co

Follow Luke’s journey:
🐦 X → x.com/lukesophinos
💼 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/lukesophinos
🚀 Startup → coursekey.com

📝 Newsletter → newsletter.lukesophinos.com
📔 Vertical SaaS Bible → verticalsaasbible.com

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💼 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/michael-houck

In this conversation we discuss:

Founder Mode

(00:00) — Intro 
(01:18) — Luke's first business

(03:32) — Joining a VC firm in college

(06:33) — Becoming a Thiel Fellow

(11:26) — Dropping out of college & going all in

(15:33) — Why traditional education is broken

(18:04) — Why founders should target boring industries

(19:53) — Building trust

(21:04) — When to pivot

Vertical SaaS

(22:46) — Differences between vertical & horizontal SaaS

(23:53) — Why vertical SaaS has better opportunities going forward

(26:53) — What makes for a venture-scale vertical SaaS product

(32:38) — Why vertical SaaS is criticized for not being venture scale

(34:30) — AI's impact on vertical software

(37:37) — Why Luke is sharing the vertical SaaS playbook

(39:00) — The vertical SaaS bible

(39:53) — Where to start building vertical SaaS businesses

(41:53) — Raising venture funding & debt financing

Rapid Fire

(44:50) — Who is one investor you’d recommend?

(45:08) — One thing you'd change about startups?

(45:38) — Advice for first-time founders?

(46:00) — Something you believe that most disagree with?