Meet Wyatt Jenkins: From Construction Sites to Chief Product Officer
If you want to understand how vertical SaaS companies scale to $1B+ in revenue while staying true to their customers, there’s no better person to learn from than Wyatt Jenkins, Chief Product Officer at Procore Technologies.
Wyatt’s journey is uniquely suited to leading product at a construction technology company. Growing up on construction sites with parents in the industry, he developed an intuitive understanding of the challenges contractors face daily. But rather than following directly in his parents’ footsteps, Wyatt spent 25 years building technology companies – including founding Beatport.com, scaling Shutterstock through its IPO as an early employee, and helping creators monetize their work at Patreon.
When he joined Procore five years ago as CPO, it was a perfect fusion of his construction background and technology expertise. Under his product leadership, Procore has grown exponentially, went public in 2021, and recently crossed the coveted $1B ARR milestone.
The Evolution of Vertical SaaS
The shift from horizontal to vertical SaaS solutions represents a fundamental change in how enterprises buy and implement software. While horizontal players like Salesforce and ServiceNow attempt to serve every industry through customization and integrations, vertical SaaS companies build deep, industry-specific functionality that’s impossible to replicate by simply stacking generic features.
Procore exemplifies this approach in the construction industry – a massive market representing 13% of global GDP. Founded 22 years ago by Tooey Courtemanche (who remains CEO), the company has scaled to 4,500 employees and went public in 2021. Their journey to $1B+ ARR offers several crucial lessons for vertical SaaS founders.
The Power of Authentic Founder-Market Fit
The most successful vertical SaaS companies are often built by founders solving problems they’ve personally experienced. This creates what I call “authentic product-market fit.” In Procore’s case, Courtemanche didn’t just identify a market opportunity – he lived and breathed construction industry challenges before building solutions.
This personal connection to the problem creates several advantages:
- First, it enables rapid product iteration based on intuitive understanding rather than just customer feedback. When you’ve lived the problem, you can often anticipate needs before customers articulate them.
- Second, it creates natural credibility with customers. Construction professionals can tell that Procore wasn’t built by tech people trying to “disrupt” their industry – it was built by someone who understands their daily challenges.
- Third, it helps maintain product vision through scale. When founders deeply understand the problem space, they can better evaluate new opportunities and maintain focus as the company grows.
Building a Culture of Customer Obsession
Scaling beyond $100M ARR requires transforming employees from “mercenaries” to “missionaries” – people who are genuinely passionate about solving customer problems. Procore has developed several innovative approaches to achieve this:
Construction Boot Camp: Every new employee, regardless of role, goes through a two-week immersion in construction. This isn’t just about product training – it’s about understanding the industry’s challenges, culture, and vocabulary.
Required Customer Interaction: Product managers must have 3-5 meaningful customer interactions weekly. This isn’t optional – it’s a core part of their job description. These interactions might include site visits, customer advisory board meetings, or deep-dive problem-solving sessions.
Balanced Hiring: Procore maintains a careful balance between industry veterans and tech industry talent. While domain expertise is valuable, they’re careful to manage what they call “domain dogma” – the “we’ve always done it this way” thinking that can stifle innovation.
The Method Acting Approach to Product Development
One of the most fascinating aspects of Procore’s approach is what they call “method acting” for product teams. This concept, borrowed from theater, involves fully immersing oneself in the customer’s world.
The head of product at Shutterstock (where Procore’s current CPO previously worked) exemplified this by spending a year working as a photographer and another as a designer. This wasn’t just occasional shadowing – it was deep immersion in the customer’s daily reality.
At Procore, this manifests in several ways:
- Regular Site Visits: Senior leaders, including the CEO, regularly visit construction sites. This isn’t just for show – they’re actively gathering insights and identifying pain points.
- Industry Immersion: Product teams spend significant time understanding construction workflows, regulations, and challenges. They don’t just build software – they become construction industry experts.
- Customer Advisory Boards: Unlike many companies where advisory boards are primarily for show, Procore’s boards have real influence over the product roadmap. They hold the company accountable for building what customers actually need.
Scaling Customer Centricity Through Process
As companies grow, maintaining customer connection becomes challenging. Procore has developed several systematic approaches:
- Vision Planning Process: Their three-year vision planning involves creating multiple possible futures and gathering extensive customer feedback to choose the right path. This isn’t just about features – it’s about understanding where the construction industry is heading.
- Balanced Metrics: While they track traditional SaaS metrics, they also measure customer success indicators specific to the construction industry. This helps ensure they’re creating real value, not just growing revenue.
- CEO Involvement: Courtemanche remains deeply involved in product discussions, setting a tone that customer understanding is everyone’s responsibility, not just product management’s.
The Revenue Impact
This deep customer focus has significant financial implications:
- Higher ACVs: Deep industry-specific functionality commands premium pricing compared to horizontal solutions.
- Lower Churn: When software is deeply embedded in industry workflows, switching costs become naturally high.
- Efficient Growth: Word-of-mouth in tight-knit industries reduces customer acquisition costs.
- Expansion Revenue: Deep industry understanding reveals natural expansion opportunities in adjacent workflows.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Vertical SaaS
As we look to 2025, 2026 and beyond, several trends are emerging:
- Industry Consolidation: Successful vertical SaaS players are becoming platforms, acquiring or partnering with complementary solutions.
- AI Integration: Vertical-specific AI solutions are becoming a key differentiator, requiring deep industry knowledge to implement effectively.
- Global Expansion: Industry-specific solutions often travel well internationally, creating natural growth paths.
The Bottom Line
Building a billion-dollar vertical SaaS company isn’t just about having great software – it’s about becoming an integral part of your target industry. Procore’s success shows that maintaining deep customer centricity at scale is not only possible but essential.
For founders starting this journey, remember that the path to $1B+ ARR is built on thousands of small customer interactions, deep industry understanding, and a genuine passion for solving industry-specific problems. The key is finding ways to systematize this customer focus without losing its authenticity.
What’s Next
As vertical SaaS continues to mature, we’ll likely see more companies following Procore’s playbook of deep industry focus combined with modern SaaS best practices. The winners will be those who can maintain that delicate balance between rapid growth and deep customer understanding while navigating industry-specific challenges like regulation, cyclicality, and technological adoption curves.
Success in vertical SaaS isn’t just about building features – it’s about becoming an indispensable part of how an industry works. That’s the real lesson from Procore’s journey to $1B+ ARR.
