HACKER Q&A
📣 TheBoomerDev

Can internal AI-built tools become products for other companies?


One of the things we startups have is that we are agile when it comes to working, and having a small team helps make the organization more effective.

Also, thanks to AI tools like Lovable, Bolt, v0Dev, etc., if we need an internal tool that doesn’t require much complexity, we can develop it in just a few hours.

But of course, sometimes you wonder if those tools could actually become a product that more companies might need.

What do you think?

  👤 codingdave Accepted Answer ✓
This is going to land on the everlasting "build vs. buy" question. The standard answer to which is you build processes and tools for your core value and buy everything else. But you are throwing a wrench in the works - if you can build it in a few hours, so can they. And their version will be exactly what they need, with easy changes as their business changes.

So for you to win that "build vs buy" equation, you need to be exceedingly flexible, easy, and cheap, in order to be a better choice vs just spending a few hours themselves. And you need to be a generic enough solution to a common enough problem that many companies need your solution. Which adds in one more challenge: any problem as common as that already has solutions.

So it is possible? Sure, maybe. But you are fighting a ton of headwinds, so it is not as easy as just packaging up a few hours of work and putting a price on it.