The Validate Playbook: Expanding from Accounting to Government Without Losing Focus

Market expansion is a delicate dance between opportunity and focus. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Validate founder Chris McCall revealed an unconventional approach to multi-market growth: letting customer needs, not predetermined strategies, guide their expansion.

Starting Without Segments

Instead of targeting specific verticals from day one, Validate took a more fundamental approach. As Chris explains, “We didn’t target any specific segments out of the gate. What we really tried to do is just find professionals that deal in these complex financial matters… We didn’t care like what firm you worked for, how big it was, how small it was.”

This approach allowed them to discover natural pathways for expansion. “We started in accounting,” Chris notes, “then government, and we’re just starting to see some traction in law.” Each market emerged organically through customer demand rather than predetermined targeting.

The Government Market Challenge

Entering the government sector wasn’t a simple extension of their accounting business. As Chris reveals, “You got to be patient, and you got to make very large investments in compliance.” The challenges went beyond just technical requirements: “Beyond that, the TLA’s three letter acronyms are crazy. We’ve had to partner with some experts in the space to help us navigate, because it’s a very different paradigm.”

This experience highlighted a crucial lesson about market expansion: sometimes the barriers to entry aren’t just about product features – they’re about understanding an entirely new business culture.

Scaling Through Evidence

Validate’s approach to scaling across markets was deliberately measured. Rather than rushing to capture market share, they waited for clear evidence of success before making major investments. As Chris explains, “We saw scale in government and accounting, and we started hiring sales. We saw repeatability. We saw the sales ramp their productivity, and then we realized, hey, we need to start making investment here.”

This evidence-based approach to expansion helped them maintain focus while growing. They aim for “60 to 120% year on year growth,” managing their burn rate carefully to achieve sustainable expansion.

The Legal Market Experiment

Their entry into the legal market further demonstrates their methodical approach to expansion. As Chris notes, “In family law, we have a lot of small cases, but we’ve also got some of our largest cases from law firms that are doing insurance fraud investigations on behalf of their clients.” This diversity presents both opportunities and challenges: “We’ve had several on ramps, and we haven’t really found that rinse and repeat motion yet.”

Core Principles of Market Expansion

Validate’s experience offers several key insights for founders considering adjacent market expansion:

1. Let customer needs guide market selection rather than predetermined strategies
2. Be prepared for significant investments in market-specific requirements
3. Partner with experts who understand new market dynamics
4. Wait for clear evidence of success before making major investments
5. Maintain flexibility in go-to-market approaches for different segments

Marketing Across Markets

Their marketing strategy evolved to support this multi-market approach. They developed what Chris calls a “sage persona,” but with a crucial distinction: “It’s not that we’re the sage. It’s that we talk to customers and listen to them, and that allows us to provide intel that a lot of people don’t get because we’re talking to so many different professionals across the United States.”

This positioning worked across markets because it focused on the fundamental needs of professionals rather than industry-specific features. As Chris explains, the common thread is that “everyone has to base their opinion on evidence.”

The Future Vision

This methodical approach to market expansion aligns with their broader vision. As Chris puts it, they aim to “drive out sample risk and give these professionals way more transparency by providing all the evidence in these large, complex financial matters, ultimately that drives down the cost of capital and makes the whole financial system more efficient.”

For founders considering adjacent market expansion, Validate’s experience offers a valuable framework. Success comes not from aggressive market capture but from understanding fundamental professional needs, being patient with market-specific requirements, and maintaining focus on core value propositions while adapting to new market dynamics.

The key is finding the balance between expansion and focus – growing into new markets not because they’re adjacent, but because they share fundamental needs that your solution can address. As Validate demonstrates, sometimes the most effective expansion strategy is letting the market pull you in rather than pushing your way in.