Guides & resources
Guides for buyers and builders.
Plain, practical writing for people deciding what to build, what to buy, and who to build it with. Filed by topic, from EdTech and real estate to working with a software team.
How this is organized
Three topics, each with the guides worth reading.
Everything here is written for someone making a real decision, not browsing. Pick the topic closest to your situation. Each one opens with a plain orientation, then links to the guides that go deeper and to the related work we do. No sign-up, no gated PDFs.
The topics
Filed by topic.
Three areas we know well and write about. Open one for the full picture, or jump straight to a guide.
- PILLAR 01EdTech
Building EdTech software
Two questions decide most EdTech builds. First: do you build the thing yourself or buy an existing platform and bend it to fit? Second: how do you handle student data without stalling every school deal in privacy review? The guides here take each one in turn, in plain terms a founder can act on.
Open the topicGuides (2)
Build vs Buy EdTech Software: When Custom Is Worth It
A practical build vs buy EdTech software guide: when an off-the-shelf LMS or SaaS wins, when custom pays off, and a checklist to decide.FERPA Compliance for EdTech: Designing for Student Data Privacy
FERPA compliance for EdTech starts in your architecture. How student data privacy shapes what you collect, your 'school official' role, and what to build first.
Related
- PILLAR 02Real Estate
Building real estate software
Most people scoping a real estate platform start with the screens. The honest answer to what it costs starts somewhere else: with the data. How many listings you handle, where they come from, how fresh they have to stay, and how many systems must agree on the same numbers. That's what moves the budget, not the photo galleries.
Open the topic - PILLAR 03Working together
Working with a software team
Bringing in outside engineers raises two practical questions. What shape should the engagement take, and what happens when the thing you're handing over is an aging system nobody fully understands? The guides here cover both, with the trade-offs named honestly rather than sold.
Open the topicGuides (2)
Staff Augmentation vs Dedicated Team vs Fixed Project
Pick staff augmentation for clear plans, a dedicated team for ongoing work without in-house engineers, or a fixed project for well-defined builds. The hidden cost is overhead.A Safer Path to Legacy Software Modernization
Inherited a stalled codebase? Legacy software modernization works best in steps: stabilize first, then replace one piece at a time.
Related
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