Should you wire up Zapier, buy a vertical SaaS, or build custom? A decision framework.
The framework\n\nFor every automation you're considering, score it on three axes:\n\n### 1. Differentiation\nIs this workflow unique to your business or shared across the industry?\n\n- Unique → build.\n- Shared → buy.\n\n### 2. Volume\nHow many times will this run per month?\n\n- < 100 → no-code (Zapier, Make).\n- 100–10,000 → low-code or vertical SaaS.\n- > 10,000 → custom code.\n\n### 3. Audit & control needs\nDoes regulation or your customer demand full audit trails and bespoke logic?\n\n- Yes → build.\n- No → buy.\n\n## The defaults\n\n- CRM, support, marketing automation: buy.\n- Internal ops automation specific to how you run the business: build.\n- AI agents that touch customers: build, on top of bought infrastructure.\n\n## The trap\n\nBuilding everything because it's fun. Buying everything because it's easy. Apply the framework.
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