Will Caldwell started Snap after his first real estate software startup fizzled, pivoting from agent tools to regulated compliance data. He discovered lenders were required to buy 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. The company charged per-loan transaction fees and embedded via API into mortgage software systems. With double-digit market share, 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. 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.
Key Takeaways
- Required Beats Optional – Legal compliance products create urgency and retention because customers must buy to complete revenue-generating transactions.
- Micro-Niche Entry – Starting in a narrow regulated segment let Snap win trust, then expand into much larger adjacent markets.
- API = Distribution – Embedding inside legacy systems turned Snap into a one-click button that scaled through partners’ existing sales teams.
- Customer Experience Wins – In commodity data markets, faster, cheaper, simpler delivery became Snap’s main competitive weapon.
Quote from Will Caldwell, CEO and Co-Founder of Snap
“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. it’s just the more focused you are on like the singular niche as a, especially someone bootstrapping the more likelihood of success.
“I think vertical SaaS has many great niches and horizontal software is challenging. You have to have a lot of money to go after horizontal solutions across industries.
“But with vertical SaaS products and niches, there’s just so much opportunity and a lot of these, like real estate in particular and propert tech in general, has got 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.”
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