Build vs Buy Revisited
A story has been going viral on Reddit and LinkedIn about the owner of a small software company who lost their biggest client because the client just built a (worse) version of the software product themselves. Without knowing the details, it’s hard to say whether that client was smart (saving the recurring subscription costs) or foolish (paying much more down the road for maintenance and a worse version of the product). But a few things are worth noting
AI-assisted coding in the right hands can certainly shift the raw calculation on build versus buy. A bit of upfront cost for the time of your in-house developers gets you perpetual savings on subscription (just don’t forget to account for hosting costs)
If the tool sees use, it will see bugs and feature requests. Now your engineers are doing double-duty.
Your company should focus all its effort on its zone of genius: The thing it is uniquely qualified and positioned to do. AI might move certain tasks from your zone of competence to your zone of excellence, meaning it’s now very easy. But that still doesn’t mean it’s what your team should be spending time and effort on.
The SaaS company whose product you want to replicate via AI has access to AI, too, and since for them, the product is their zone of genius, you can bet that they’ll continue improving it at a pace that your small internal effort cannot match.
Remember opportunity costs. Is rebuilding it really the best thing your team could be doing with their time? If the answer is yes, you might ask yourself why that is, and why you believe doubling down on your core strengths would yield diminishing returns!
In the end, you need to know exactly why you’re building: Build when it's core to your differentiation. Buy when it's not. AI doesn't change that. It just tempts you to forget it.
