Own your stack
Lock-in only goes one way. We build agnostic, use only what we must, and retire a tool once aan has taken its job. What is at risk, and what stays.
November 1, 20265 min read5 chaptersBy Chris Johnston
01 · LOCK-IN
Locked in means the price goes one way.
Build your whole company on one vendor's AI platform and it is only a matter of time before they raise the price. Not because they are bad people. Because they can. You are locked in.
Owning your stack gives you control over the biggest new line in your budget: your compute. You pay for hosting and inference, not a seat license that grows every time you hire.
A SHAPE, NOT DATA.
02 · AGNOSTIC
We use only what we must.
Everything we build is agnostic. The model swaps. The harness swaps. The cloud and the hardware swap. What stays is what we write down for you: the instruction files, the connectors, your data.
That is portability, and it is why leaving us is copying a folder. How the shell around the model works is in What is a harness?
SWAPS
The model
⇄ any vendor
SWAPS
The harness
⇄ any vendor
SWAPS
The cloud
⇄ any vendor
SWAPS
The hardware
⇄ any vendor
STAYS YOURS
Your instruction files, your connectors, your data.
03 · THE BLOCK
Every tool is on the chopping block.
We started with our own company. We did not think we could replace Gmail. We did: we rolled our own email processor. We did not think we could replace Shopify. We did.
QuickBooks is next. It is also the one that shows why this is not a purge.
Nothing is sacred. Nothing gets cut before its replacement works.
- REPLACED
Gmail
We rolled our own email processor.
- REPLACED
Shopify
We did not think we could. We did.
- NEXT
QuickBooks
On the block. Not gone yet.
OUR OWN STACK, AT POSTSCARCITY AI.
04 · THE JOB MOVES
Retire a tool when its jobs are gone.
We do not rip software out on day one. Your moves in next to the tools you already run and takes their jobs one at a time. The contacts first, then the email, then the rest.
When a tool has no jobs left, you stop paying for it. Not before. The replacement is software written for you and run by your : own your stack, inside Your Everything App.
05 · AT RISK
At risk. Necessities.
Far left: the email blaster, the chat widget, the social scheduler. If you run Mailchimp, Intercom or Sprout Social, let's get you off them. AAn does those jobs better and you stop renting them.
The middle depends on your team. Zendesk sits there. So does GoHighLevel: use it if you like it, it is just not what we build.
Far right are the necessities, and the reason is human friction. People trust a QuickBooks invoice and pay it faster. Your accountant works in QuickBooks. Your team already knows Shopify. That is cultural inertia, and it is real. Every tool, by category, is on the Yea page.
PLACED BY JUDGMENT, NOT MEASURED. THE FULL GRID IS ON THE YEA PAGE.
