Build vs Buy Decision Matrix

Format: For each new feature, decide whether to build it yourself or use a third-party service.

Decision matrix:

               ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
               │  Is it your core competency?         │
               └──────────┬──────────────┬────────────┘
                    Yes   │              │  No
               ┌──────────▼──┐    ┌──────▼──────────┐
               │  Build it    │    │  Use an existing │
               │  yourself    │    │  service          │
               │  (this is    │    │  (Stripe, Auth0,  │
               │  your value) │    │   Supabase, etc.) │
               └─────────────┘    └──────────────────┘

Exercise: Make a Build vs Buy decision for the following features:

1. User authentication -> Build or Clerk/Supabase Auth?
2. Search functionality -> Build or Algolia?
3. Payment processing -> Build or Stripe?
4. Email sending -> Build or Resend/SendGrid?
5. AI features -> Train your own model or call the Claude API?