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Notes on building software that works

Practical, opinionated articles from the QuickSort team — written for founders, product owners, and operators who want to make better decisions about software.

5 min read

5 signs your business has outgrown its SaaS stack

If your team spends hours every week copy-pasting between systems, or your Friday afternoons disappear into spreadsheet reconciliation, you're not alone. Here are the five signs we see most often before a business decides it's time for something built for them.

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7 min read

A 1,050% price increase: what the VMware story should teach every business about vendor lock-in

Broadcom bought VMware in late 2023 and rewrote the contract terms within weeks. AT&T was quoted a 1,050% one-year price increase. European cloud providers reported hikes of 800–1,500%. This is the clearest argument in years for owning the critical parts of your software stack.

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6 min read

What 65,000 developers say about their tech stack — and what it means for your project

Stack Overflow's 2024 Developer Survey polled more than 65,000 engineers about the tools they actually use in production. Here's what the data says, and how to use it when commissioning custom software.

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7 min read

Custom software vs SaaS: when building your own platform actually pays off

SaaS is the right answer most of the time. But for a meaningful set of businesses, the math flips. Here's how to tell which camp you're in before you commit to either.

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8 min read

How to scope a software project before you write a single line of code

Most software projects fail in scoping, not in coding. A practical guide to defining what to build, what to leave out, and how to keep both you and your developer honest.

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