My interest in vertical networks started back in 2014 when I evaluated platforms like Strava and Fishbrain. These platforms were great at building communities around people’s hobbies, but they’ve taken an excruciatingly long time to scale monetization. Advertisers don’t really care until you hit 100s of millions of MAUs. And subscriptions are hard to grow nonlinearly within a niche category like anglers or athletes.
Discord is probably the only example of a new vertical social graph that has taken off in the last decade, and they clearly picked an audience—gamers—that was large enough and viral enough to enable their growth (and expansion beyond gaming).
So this has led me away from vertical social networks and toward vertical professional networks. Vertical professional networks solve real problems: helping skilled workers find jobs and giving employers better hiring tools. They’re especially valuable in industries like healthcare, construction, and hospitality, where workers need specialized skills/certifications, and there’s constant turnover.
LinkedIn, built for office workers, doesn’t fit here. Deskless workers don’t need another social feed—they need something transactional that gets them to their next opportunity. Skillit (I’m on the board) is a good example. It’s designed for construction workers to showcase their qualifications and land jobs quickly. For employers, it simplifies finding and vetting talent. The platform works because it focuses on the practical: detailed profiles, clear credentials, and fast connections.
These networks also have a natural flywheel effect. Workers improve their profiles to stand out, and employers benefit from faster, smarter hiring. Better workers attract better employees, and the platform grows stronger. It’s simple, but it works.
The opportunity here is huge. Construction alone employs millions of people who change jobs regularly. Multiply that across hospitality, healthcare, and supply chain—all industries that are big, fragmented, and underserved by existing tools. I think we will continue to see large companies built here.