Vertical SaaS at work: Making embedded finance disappear for home-service pros

This post continues our blog series based on conversations from the Fintech Takes podcast series, hosted by Alex Johnson and Pipe CEO Luke Voiles. Each episode brings together leading voices from across fintech to explore how technology is reshaping the future of financial services.

In this installment, we sit down with Ethan Senturia, President (and former Chief Fintech Officer) of Housecall Pro, to unpack how vertical SaaS can erase financial friction for home-service businesses like HVAC, plumbing, electrical, garage door installers, cleaning, and more. The strategy? Own the workflow, embed the money, and reduce anxiety for the “pros” who keep our homes running.

There is no such thing as “a pro”

Housecall Pro serves “pros,” but Ethan’s first lesson is that the label is only for convenience. Under the hood, every trade and business size is its own species.

“There’s no such thing as a pro. There are plumbers, electricians, roofers, painters, and a one-person shop does not operate like a 20-person shop.”

That reality shapes everything: pricing models (time & labor vs. square footage vs. measurement), scheduling, dispatch, proposals, and the right moment to insert finance. Horizontal tools try to genericize “task completion.” Vertical SaaS acknowledges identity and difference, and wins trust by reflecting them in product.

Modularity that lets customers grow

As Luke notes, the job is to help the sole operator become a five-truck outfit without ever leaving the platform. That requires configurability and packaging flexibility: deliver only what’s needed today, then unlock complexity as the business grows.

“You can’t hand SAP to a three-person shop. The platform must decompose—right features, right time—then scale seamlessly as needs evolve.”

This is the antidote to platform bloat: multi-product breadth without overwhelming the user at day one.

The mantra: All money in, all money out

When Ethan took the fintech helm, he and the CEO centered the program on a deceptively simple meditation:

“All money in. All money out.”

Start where the pain is obvious—getting paid—but don’t stop at “card acceptance on an invoice.” Treat payments as a business, not a feature: rails, pricing, risk, support, and cost optimization. Then expand the aperture:

• More ways in: cards, ACH, consumer financing (“pay-over-time” to win bigger jobs), even mobile check deposit, because homeowners still write checks.

• Where the money goes: issuance & spend management, bill pay, payroll, because home services aren’t 80% gross margin e-commerce; every dollar in quickly becomes many dollars out.

Luke’s take: this is follow-the-money product thinking applied to fintech, not just the core SaaS.

Embed earlier in the journey

The biggest breakthroughs come when finance moves upstream from the invoice. Winning the job (good/better/best proposals), collecting deposits, card-on-file, automated reminders with escalating tone—these workflow moments determine whether and when a pro gets paid. Embedded finance is the multiplier inside these flows, not a separate product bolted on at the end.

“If you’re debating tender types on an invoice, you may have skipped the five more important steps that actually change cash-flow outcomes.” - Ethan

Segments within segments

After the “first layer” of product-market fit, the roadmap gets more granular. The same product must show up differently by trade and by org size:

• A solo painter needs “set-and-forget” consumer financing on invoices.

• A 20-tech plumbing shop needs centralized sales tools: proposals, dealer-fee-aware pricing, and tighter financing orchestration.

Prioritization becomes “what’s the next version for whom,” not simply “what’s the next product.”

The data advantage: reduce anxiety

Housecall Pro sees both transactions and operations (calendars, scheduled jobs, proposals). That mix produces leading indicators no bank can match.

“We want pros to never worry about having the dollar they need, when they need it, and not to sit on idle dollars when they could fuel growth.” - Ethan

Sometimes the right move is to co-create with partners that bring risk, compliance, and underwriting capabilities; other times you build in-house. The point is to keep reassessing as the embedded finance landscape matures.

Make the financial product disappear

Luke captured the embedded-finance endgame:

“The more you can make financial services disappear into the workflow, the more time owners can spend under the sink, or with their families.”

If the platform understands the job before it exists, the money in/money out support can trail the workflow like a safety net, calm replaces anxiety, and the relationship endures.

AI: the team you always wanted

Housecall Pro is bullish on AI, and they see two immediate vectors:

1. AI as a team: marketing specialist, bookkeeper, HR coordinator, receptionist—virtual staff doing the work the pro can’t hire for, with the owner retaining simple “manager” controls.

2. AI as a complexity shield: real-time personalization “to the level of one.” Expose only what matters, right now. In a truck, with minutes between jobs, the ideal UI might be a microphone bubble, not a dashboard.

The road ahead

The home-services economy doesn’t need more toggles; it needs fewer worries. Vertical SaaS will keep winning by knowing its customer deeply, embedding finance early, and using data and AI to trade complexity for calm.

As Ethan put it, the true measure is anxiety reduction. If Housecall Pro can make “money in/money out” feel like oxygen—always there, never noticed—they’ll have customers for life.

Want the full conversation with Alex, Luke, and Ethan? Catch the complete Fintech Takes episode and stay tuned for the next blog in our series, where we’ll keep unpacking the ideas shaping the next decade of fintech.