GraphedMinds
The Startup Ideas Podcast

The Startup Ideas Podcast

The best businesses are built at the intersection of emerging technology, community, and real human needs.

Back to Mental Models

Stand on Shoulders of Giants

Build MicroSaaS products using existing platforms, APIs, and services rather than creating everything from scratch

Decision Rule

When choosing between building a feature yourself or using an existing service, default to using the existing service unless it's core to your differentiation

How It Works

Reduces development time, leverages proven solutions, allows focus on core value proposition, and provides access to established ecosystems

Failure Modes

Over-dependence on third-party services that could change terms

Using services that don't integrate well together

Choosing expensive services that hurt unit economics

Not understanding the services you're building on

Example Decision

Instead of building payment processing, user authentication, and database infrastructure, a founder uses Stripe, Auth0, and Supabase to focus entirely on their core PDF processing feature