Fintech
What a founder weighs before building SaaS for financial services: who buys, the regulatory perimeter, data questions and the sales cycle.
Industries
Industry considerations
What building SaaS for an industry asks of a founder: who buys, the regulatory perimeter from primary sources, data questions and the sales cycle.
One sun, many worlds
Each industry WE writes about is its own world, with its own buyers and rules; the work of building a company around it is the same long orbit.
The five-year odds, by industry
About half of new establishments are still open at year five; in the information sector, fewer than half are.
45.7% 1
of Information-sector establishments survived five years (50.8% in professional and technical services)
51.4% 2
were still operating after five years
- BLS Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7, NAICS 51 , Opened in the year to March 2020
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 , Opened in the year to March 2020
Founders often arrive with an industry in mind.
Each page below sets out what building SaaS for that industry asks of a founder: who buys and who decides, the regulatory and standards perimeter, the questions about data handling and the sales cycle.
Every regulatory statement is read from a primary source on the date shown, and the sources are listed on each page.
What WE's teams can and cannot build
- WE is a long-horizon business incubation and consulting firm that steers a dedicated, fully remote team building the company with its founder.
- The team builds software: architecture, an agile build in short cycles and a pilot environment where early customers can use the product.
- The team does not run a live service, because WE builds to pilot scale.
- The team does not store or process restricted or regulated data in WE systems.
- WE gives no assurance that a product will pass a particular audit or hold a particular certification.
- WE does not give legal, tax, accounting, insurance or compliance advice.
- WE coordinates a founder’s own counsel and other specialists, and the founder engages them directly.
Every opening year, the same clock
Twenty-seven groups of new establishments, one dot each: the five-year share barely moves from year to year or industry to industry.
Show the data as a table
| Row | Opening-year group | Value |
|---|---|---|
| All private industries | Opened 1994 | 49.6% |
| All private industries | Opened 1995 | 48.8% |
| All private industries | Opened 1996 | 48.1% |
| All private industries | Opened 1997 | 47.6% |
| All private industries | Opened 1998 | 48.1% |
| All private industries | Opened 1999 | 48.2% |
| All private industries | Opened 2000 | 48.2% |
| All private industries | Opened 2001 | 48.1% |
| All private industries | Opened 2002 | 50.1% |
| All private industries | Opened 2003 | 49.9% |
| All private industries | Opened 2004 | 48.4% |
| All private industries | Opened 2005 | 46.8% |
| All private industries | Opened 2006 | 45.4% |
| All private industries | Opened 2007 | 46.4% |
| All private industries | Opened 2008 | 47.8% |
| All private industries | Opened 2009 | 50.1% |
| All private industries | Opened 2010 | 51.1% |
| All private industries | Opened 2011 | 50.9% |
| All private industries | Opened 2012 | 50.1% |
| All private industries | Opened 2013 | 50.6% |
| All private industries | Opened 2014 | 50.8% |
| All private industries | Opened 2015 | 50.2% |
| All private industries | Opened 2016 | 50.7% |
| All private industries | Opened 2017 | 51.6% |
| All private industries | Opened 2018 | 51.9% |
| All private industries | Opened 2019 | 51.5% |
| All private industries | Opened 2020 | 51.4% |
| Information | Opened 1994 | 45.7% |
| Information | Opened 1995 | 42.5% |
| Information | Opened 1996 | 42% |
| Information | Opened 1997 | 40.2% |
| Information | Opened 1998 | 41% |
| Information | Opened 1999 | 38.6% |
| Information | Opened 2000 | 33.5% |
| Information | Opened 2001 | 32.6% |
| Information | Opened 2002 | 39.1% |
| Information | Opened 2003 | 41.6% |
| Information | Opened 2004 | 43% |
| Information | Opened 2005 | 40.9% |
| Information | Opened 2006 | 41.9% |
| Information | Opened 2007 | 42.9% |
| Information | Opened 2008 | 40% |
| Information | Opened 2009 | 40.8% |
| Information | Opened 2010 | 43.1% |
| Information | Opened 2011 | 41.2% |
| Information | Opened 2012 | 42.7% |
| Information | Opened 2013 | 44.3% |
| Information | Opened 2014 | 45.7% |
| Information | Opened 2015 | 46.8% |
| Information | Opened 2016 | 48.4% |
| Information | Opened 2017 | 48.1% |
| Information | Opened 2018 | 44.2% |
| Information | Opened 2019 | 45.4% |
| Information | Opened 2020 | 45.7% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 1994 | 51.3% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 1995 | 50.2% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 1996 | 48.6% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 1997 | 47% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 1998 | 45.9% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 1999 | 45.1% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2000 | 45.5% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2001 | 44.2% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2002 | 47.4% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2003 | 48.3% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2004 | 48.3% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2005 | 45.4% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2006 | 44.5% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2007 | 44.5% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2008 | 43.5% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2009 | 45% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2010 | 45.9% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2011 | 45.1% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2012 | 44.9% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2013 | 46.3% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2014 | 50.5% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2015 | 50.3% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2016 | 52.4% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2017 | 52.8% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2018 | 50.2% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2019 | 50.7% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | Opened 2020 | 50.8% |
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 , Data through March 2025 ; BLS Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7, Information (NAICS 51) , Data through March 2025 ; BLS Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7, Professional and technical services (NAICS 54) , Data through March 2025
Retrieved 2026-10-15. Each dot is the published survival rate at year 5 of one opening-year group.
Industries
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Healthtech
What a founder weighs before building SaaS for health care: who buys, the regulatory perimeter, data questions and the sales cycle.
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Edtech
What a founder weighs before building SaaS for schools and learners: who buys, the regulatory perimeter, data questions and the sales cycle.
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Climate tech
What a founder weighs before building software for climate and emissions work: who buys, the reporting perimeter, data questions and the sales cycle.
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Legaltech
What a founder weighs before building SaaS for lawyers and legal teams: who buys, the professional rules, data questions and the sales cycle.
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Logistics
What a founder weighs before building SaaS for freight and supply chains: who buys, the regulatory perimeter, data questions and the sales cycle.
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Proptech
What a founder weighs before building SaaS for real estate: who buys, the regulatory perimeter, data questions and the sales cycle.
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