Guide
What 67 Teams Told Us About Building It Themselves
A build vs buy guide for revenue, RevOps and AI transformation leaders deciding what to build in-house and what to buy.
AI made building inexpensive. Most GTM teams now have someone who can stand up a CRM data tool in an afternoon, so “we’ll build it” is a reasonable first answer.
We went back through 193 calls where building came up, across 67 companies, to see what happened next. Most teams build something, and they should. The ones that got value from AI drew the line in the same place. They built the intelligence their business is judged on and bought the data layer underneath it.
This guide shows where that line sits, where in-house builds break, and what they cost once they ship.
What’s inside:
- The five kinds of build we saw, and where each one breaks
- Why an internal build looks free on a budget sheet, and what it really costs to run
- A fill-in worksheet to add up your build before the conversation reaches finance
- How Mimecast built first, then bought, and what it built on top
- How AI transformation leaders at QuickBase, Asana and Mimecast decide what to build
- A one-page checklist of five questions to answer before you build
Who it’s for: CROs, RevOps and GTM operations leaders, and AI transformation teams weighing build or buy for their CRM data.
