There is a $3,800 per employee SaaS tax sitting in your tech stack.
I've been talking with business leaders lately, and a major theme is clear: SaaS is in trouble. The "Buy vs Build" equation has been rewritten and for most SMBs, the new reality is: You should probably build. Math (Pendo & Zylo) - $4,800: The average company spend per employee, per year on SaaS - 80%: Features in that software that go completely unused = $3,800: Amount spent on wasted features every single year, per person If coding is "largely solved" (Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code), the competitive advantage shifts from who buys then best tailors generic apps to who builds the best custom workflows. It's time to get the pitchforks. I'm going to dive into how to prioritize these solutions. (Hint: Start where the friction is highest and the judgement needed is lowest. If your team groans about a repetitive, time-consuming task, that's your first automation. Then build custom tools that drive competitive advantage). Which SaaS apps are you ditching first? What custom tools are you building? Let's talk 👇 Link to the full blog in the first comment
William Callaway
March 12, 2026
