Build vs Buy Analyzer

Considering whether to build our own email delivery system or use SendGrid. We're a 4-person SaaS startup, sending about 50k transactional emails/month. Engineering rate ~$120/hr. Our product has nothing special about email — it just needs to get sent.

BUILD-VS-BUY DECISION RECORD ════════════════════════════════════════ Component: Transactional email delivery Decision: BUY Confidence: HIGH ════════════════════════════════════════

SCORECARD ────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Criterion Weight Score Weighted Rationale Core Competency 20% 1 0.20 Email delivery is not the product; it's infrastructure Strategic Differentiation 20% 1 0.20 No competitive edge from custom SMTP handling Total Cost of Ownership 15% 2 0.30 Build requires DKIM/SPF, bounce handling, IP warmup — months of work Time to Market 15% 1 0.15 SendGrid API is 1 day to integrate; building is 6–8 weeks minimum Integration Complexity 10% 1 0.10 REST API, SDK available, drop-in for all major languages Vendor Lock-in Risk 10% 2 0.20 Email APIs are commodity; switching to Postmark/SES takes < 1 week Team Capability 5% 2 0.10 Team could build it, but it's not a good use of 4 engineers Long-term Maintenance 5% 1 0.05 Team wants zero maintenance on deliverability infrastructure ────────────────────────────────────────────────────── WEIGHTED TOTAL: 1.3 / 5.0

Threshold: < 2.5 = BUY | 2.5–3.5 = HYBRID | > 3.5 = BUILD

3-YEAR TCO ESTIMATE ────────────────────────────────────────────────────── [... abbreviated ...]