Some software companies don’t begin with the intention of becoming software companies.
They begin because someone has a problem.
They build an internal tool to solve it.
The tool works.
Then somebody asks a much more interesting question:
If this solves our problem, how many other companies have the exact same problem?
At
Jarbly Venture Labs, we actively look for internal technology that has the potential to become a commercial product.
That’s part of how
BizFinder by Jarbly evolved.
We Initially Needed the Technology Ourselves
Our team works with businesses and acquisition opportunities.
That created a fundamental data problem:
How do you efficiently identify businesses across the country, organize fragmented information, research companies, filter opportunities and find the businesses that actually match what you’re looking for?
You could have people manually searching the internet all day.
Or you could build technology to do it more efficiently.
So we started developing internal technology around the problem.
Data collection.
Business information.
Search.
Filtering.
Analysis.
Automation.
Research tools.
The initial objective was straightforward:
Build something useful for ourselves.
Then We Recognized Something Bigger
The more useful the technology became internally, the more obvious another opportunity became.
We’re not the only people who need this.
Business buyers need it.
Acquisition professionals need it.
Sales teams need it.
Business development teams need it.
Entrepreneurs need it.
Companies looking for potential customers, partners, acquisition targets or market intelligence need versions of the same underlying capability.
That’s when an internal tool can become something much more interesting.
Internal Tool → SaaS
The transformation doesn’t happen simply because you put a login screen on your internal software.
An internal tool is designed around
your company.
A SaaS product has to work for
other people.
That can mean developing:
- User accounts and permissions
- Search and filtering
- A cleaner user experience
- Customer dashboards
- Billing and subscriptions
- Usage or credit systems
- Data normalization
- Scalable infrastructure
- Onboarding
- Security
- Reporting
- Integrations
- Customer-facing automation
- Features that weren’t necessary when only your own team used it
You’re taking something that solves
your problem and turning it into something that repeatedly solves a
market’s problem.
That’s what makes the transition interesting.
You Might Already Be Sitting on a Software Company
Think about the technology your company has created internally.
Maybe your developers built a dashboard because existing software wasn’t good enough.
Maybe you built a spreadsheet that has become incredibly sophisticated.
Maybe you created a script that automates hours of work.
Maybe you built software for your employees to manage a process unique to your industry.
Maybe you’ve connected several APIs together in a way that makes your operation dramatically more efficient.
Maybe you’ve built a proprietary database.
Maybe you’ve created an internal AI tool.
Everyone inside the company may simply call it:
“the tool we use.”
We might look at the exact same thing and ask:
Could other companies pay for this?
That’s an Opportunity We Look For
At Jarbly Venture Labs, we can evaluate an internal system from a different perspective.
What problem does it solve?
Who else has that problem?
How frequently do they experience it?
What are they currently paying to solve it?
What would have to change for outsiders to use the software?
Could it support recurring subscription revenue?
Does the underlying technology, workflow, data or methodology create a competitive advantage?
If the answers are compelling, the company may be sitting on an entirely new revenue stream.
Or potentially an entirely new business.
You Don’t Always Need to Invent Something From Scratch
Innovation doesn’t necessarily mean sitting in a room trying to dream up something that has never existed.
Sometimes the innovation has
already happened inside your company.
Nobody commercialized it.
A tool built to save your employees time could become workflow SaaS.
A proprietary database could become an intelligence platform.
A lead-generation engine could become a subscription product.
An internal automation could become software used throughout an industry.
A sophisticated spreadsheet could become an application.
A collection of scripts could become a platform.
The raw material may already exist.
The opportunity is recognizing what it could become.
That’s the Jarbly Venture Labs Approach
We don’t only ask companies:
“What new product should we invent?”
We also ask:
“What have you already built that you’re not selling?”
BizFinder grew from technology designed to help solve our own business-data and acquisition workflow needs into a SaaS platform with a much broader potential market.
Your company could have its own version hiding somewhere internally.
Show Us the Software You Built for Yourself
Have an internal dashboard, database, automation, script, workflow, spreadsheet or proprietary system your team relies on?
Show it to Jarbly Venture Labs.
We’ll look at whether it’s simply a useful internal tool—or whether there could be a SaaS business hiding inside it.
INTERNAL PROBLEM → INTERNAL TOOL → PRODUCTIZE → SaaS → RECURRING REVENUE
Jarbly Venture Labs
We Build Ideas Into Businesses.