Savvy software founders are finally seeing that you don’t need to build a huge company to get a huge exit. You just have to be lean and smart about outside funding–and focus.
If you raise big VC funding, you need to create a HUGE company for the founders to win big.
The old “riches are in the niches” advice is still true, but we just don’t hear it in the same way as “Stay focused and grow an efficient $5 million ARR software company you can sell for $30 million or 50 million.”
Will Caldwell started SnapNHD after his first real estate software startup fizzled, pivoting from agent tools to regulated compliance data.
He discovered that lenders were required to purchase hazard and flood certifications and realized this was a “painkiller” product.
He built Snap as a data and analytics platform for real estate and mortgage underwriting.
Snap grew from a single California compliance product into a national flood data business, reaching $5M in revenue and 30 employees, with just a little angel funding.
The company charged per-loan transaction fees and embedded them in mortgage software systems via the API.
With a double-digit market share in this specific area, Snap focused on customer experience, automation, and expanding wallet share inside lenders’ workflows.
In October 2024, Snap sold 51% of the company to Intercontinental Exchange, parent of ICE Mortgage Technology, at a double-digit revenue multiple. It’s the big player in this space.
Will stayed on to scale the platform inside a much larger ecosystem. His key lesson: dominate a narrow niche, build a required product, and let strategic buyers find you.
Will describes why his focused strategy worked so well for him:
“You don’t need to build a huge business to get a huge exit, a life-changing exit. Just stay laser-focused. Don’t chase shiny objects. I see a lot of founders trying to boil the ocean. The more focused you are on a single niche, especially for someone bootstrapping, the more likely you are to succeed.
“I think vertical SaaS has many great niches, and horizontal software is more challenging. You have to have a lot of money to go after horizontal solutions across industries.
“But within vertical SaaS products and niches, there’s just so much opportunity—and a lot of them, like real estate in particular and property-tech in general. There are a lot of niches that can be solved. You don’t need to build a huge business to get a huge exit, a life-changing exit.”
I have known Will for many years. He was very focused and frugal long before it was obvious that he had built a very valuable company.
It’s great to share his practical success story on my podcast—and see the smile on his face that he loves what he does, and he has had a big win.
Check out this episode with Will Caldwell on the Practical Founders Podcast here.
