Struggles in buy-vs-build land — Blake Messer // Cratejoy
- Part 1How to use ChatGPT to write code — Blake Messer // Cratejoy
- Part 2 Struggles in buy-vs-build land — Blake Messer // Cratejoy
Show Notes
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02:05Are you building too much? How to navigate the struggles of buying vs. building?At an early stage, many startups think they have to build everything instead of using off-the-shelf tools, even for tools that arent core to their business.
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05:05Why do startup founders think they need to build everything?Their instinct is to build when they should be buying, but you don't know until after the fact whether or not you're making that decision correctly.
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07:01Why Cratejoy is moving away from its custom e commerce platform to ShopifyThey realized that the consumer-facing website is the meat of their product, but the technology underlying that website isn't, so there is no need to reinvent the wheel.
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08:44The mistake of using the same engineering framework for marketing assetsMany startups get it wrong when they build an app with their favorite framework as an engineering team and want to implement landing pages and other marketing assets into the framework without realizing the SEO trade-off that may cause.
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13:17Why you should negotiate and rePaying for that external SaaS tool is often cheaper and better than building a custom one, especially if it is not the core of your business.
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14:45How to approach the buy vs. build questionPeople are often worried that by taking an off-the-shelf solution, they will end up only having 80% of the functionality they want. You only want that 80%, and the costs of getting the 100% are profound.
Quotes
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"I think we'd made this decision the wrong way, probably two dozen times over the last nine years. We built our own custom CMS, ESP-type tool for internal use, and bespoke e-commerce platform and checkout experience. We didn't build a payment processor, but if you'd let us go on without correcting us, we probably would have eventually" - Blake Messer
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"Even the pieces that were not core to our business, and there were off-the-shelf tools for we built our versions of those. We've been beaten over the head over and over and over again with the lessons of why you shouldn't do that. At some point, it just started to feel like we were swimming through jello of our tech diet." - Blake Messer
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"Your instinct is to build when you should be buying, but you don't know until after the fact whether or not you're making that decision correctly." - Blake Messer
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"A lot of startups get this wrong. They build an app with their favorite framework as an engineering team and then put the landing page for the product on that app, too. And then, you hire your first marketer. And they're like, Well, this doesn't work for us." - Blake Messer
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"We've learned that it was very hard for us to figure out the meat of our business. Ultimately, we've come up with. Now we think it's this abstraction that we call the glue layer between Shopify and the thing that our sellers interact with." - Blake Messer
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"Five years ago, we built our internal tool because we were tired of paying Mixpanel $7,000, and it was just the worst possible decision we could have made." - Blake Messer
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"People are often worried that by taking an off-the-shelf solution, they will only have 80% of the functionality they want. My advice to them is almost always you only want that 80% and the costs of getting the 100% are profound." - Blake Messer
- Part 1How to use ChatGPT to write code — Blake Messer // Cratejoy
- Part 2 Struggles in buy-vs-build land — Blake Messer // Cratejoy
Up Next:
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Part 1How to use ChatGPT to write code — Blake Messer // Cratejoy
Are you one of those CTOs scared of adopting ChatGPT because of privacy, security, and copyright concerns? Your team members are already using it. The earlier you drive adoption and expertise with how to use and what the pitfalls are, the more elaborate your work will be. Find out more in this episode of the CTO podcast as Blake Messer, VP of Engineering at Cratejoy, discusses how to use ChatGPT to write code and more.
Play Podcast -
Part 2Struggles in buy-vs-build land — Blake Messer // Cratejoy
The buy vs. build question is a recurring one engineering leaders have to deal with. You are often worried that by taking an off-the-shelf solution, they will only have 80% of the functionality you want. Do you still go ahead to buy or build internally? How does doing either help you compete in the market? Find out more in this episode of the CTO podcast as Blake Messer, VP of Engineering at Cratejoy, discusses answering the buy vs. build question and how to avoid struggles down the road.
