FAQ

How Many Business Verticals Can One Software Platform Support?

Multi-Vertical Scaling

Key Takeaways
  • According to a 2023 Gartner report on composable business architecture, most enterprise platforms support 1 to 2 verticals natively and require significant customization to add a third.
  • The platform is structured as a multi-vertical directory architecture where each vertical gets its own directory with dedicated funnel flows, offer walls, and provider integrations, while sharing the infrastructure below:
  • The 5-vertical structure creates built-in diversification.

At least five, based on documented production deployments. Stealth Labz's PRJ-11 platform runs 5 distinct business verticals -- Gold IRA, credit cards, investing, dating, and insurance -- on a single shared infrastructure. Each vertical has its own lead capture funnel, offer wall, provider cards, and routing logic, but all five share the same deployment pipeline, API structure, and codebase architecture. The platform was built in 11 active development days.

What "multi-vertical" typically means in the industry

According to a 2023 Gartner report on composable business architecture, most enterprise platforms support 1 to 2 verticals natively and require significant customization to add a third. The reason is architectural coupling: when a platform is designed around the assumptions of a single vertical (insurance pricing models, or e-commerce checkout flows, or SaaS subscription logic), adding a fundamentally different vertical means fighting the original design at every layer.

Multi-vertical platforms do exist -- Salesforce, HubSpot, and Shopify all serve multiple industries. But they achieve this through abstraction so broad that significant configuration and customization is required for each vertical. A small operator looking to run 5 specific verticals on a single platform typically faces a choice: one powerful tool that does nothing well out of the box, or five separate tools with five separate infrastructure costs.

How PRJ-11 supports 5 verticals on one infrastructure

The platform is structured as a multi-vertical directory architecture where each vertical gets its own directory with dedicated funnel flows, offer walls, and provider integrations, while sharing the infrastructure below:

Shared across all 5 verticals:

  • CI/CD deployment pipeline
  • API structure and routing
  • Widget integrations (QuinStreet, MediaAlpha)
  • API lead routing (Waypoint)
  • Codebase architecture and file structure

Unique per vertical:

  • Funnel questionnaire flows (each vertical asks different qualifying questions)
  • Offer walls (each vertical displays different providers)
  • Provider cards (each vertical has its own vendor relationships)
  • Lead economics (Gold IRA leads at $30-$100 vs. dating leads at $5-$20)

The total codebase spans 127,832 lines of code across 317 code files. That line count is driven by the breadth of 5 separate vertical directories, not by depth of complexity in any single one. The platform was built in 11 active development days across 38 calendar days, with an 88.7% net-new delivery rate and zero reverts.

Why this matters for business operators

The 5-vertical structure creates built-in diversification. If one market contracts (say, dating leads lose value), the other four verticals continue generating revenue. A single-vertical platform puts all revenue at risk from one market shift. Five verticals on shared infrastructure means the fixed cost of maintaining the platform is spread across five revenue streams instead of one.

The estimated replacement value for building this platform from scratch using outside development teams is $200,000 to $400,000. The actual build cost through Stealth Labz's scaffold architecture was $2,863 in external support. That 70x to 140x gap between actual cost and replacement value is a direct result of the shared infrastructure: most of the platform was already built before PRJ-11 started.

Related: What percentage of software infrastructure transfers when you launch a new product vertical?

References

  1. Gartner (2023). "Composable Business Architecture." Multi-vertical platform support benchmarks across enterprise platforms.
  2. Keating, M.G. (2026). "The Compounding Execution Method: Complete Technical Documentation." Stealth Labz. Browse papers