Re:Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – The open-source chat UI
by CuriouslyC on Tuesday November 25, 2025 @01:48PM
(#46049226)
Yes, but imagine a chat app that's designed for accountants, that has widgets for accounting, and it's set up for accounting workflows. That's _HUGE_ but not something that a "one chat to rule them all" is going to just go and do. You could use that same example for lab technicians and any other role.
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Re:Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – The open-source chat UI
by motoxpro on Wednesday November 26, 2025 @04:06AM
(#46055601)
Same "verticalization" argument people made for search in the early 2000s. There's a lot more use cases for tech than just vertical SaaS apps.
Re:Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – The open-source chat UI
by CuriouslyC on Wednesday November 26, 2025 @09:07AM
(#46057526)
I don't think that comparison holds, search is a task you do as part of a workflow, there isn't a big difference in search across verticals other than curation of the data set you're searching from. If chat is becoming how people do their work, I don't see how product proliferation across verticals isn't going to be a thing.
Re:Launch HN: Onyx (YC W24) – The open-source chat UI
by motoxpro on Tuesday December 02, 2025 @02:09AM
(#46118477)
That's only obvious in hindsight. Back in the day, people said how in the world am I going to use the same search box for buying a car (color, make, model, photos) as I do for finding the latest concerts in my area (map, seating charts, etc.)
And you're right vertical SaaS DID become a thing, and so will vertical AI, but the horizontal versions of both (search and SaaS) crush the vertical ones (Google for search Microsoft for SaaS), and I believe it will be the same. Theres a layer above what you are talking about (e.g. Teams as the product vs Slack as the company).
Horizontal has a higher TAM and Vertical is easier to execute.
But this is besides the point. My point was that productivity is a minority of the TAM.