The decision framework
Build vs. Buy vs. Kyro
Most companies are stuck choosing between software that doesn't quite fit and custom development they can't afford. There's a third option.
Three options, two bad ones
When a mid-market company needs better tools, the conversation usually goes one of two ways. Both end in compromise.
Option 1
Buy off-the-shelf
- Fast to deploy. You're live in weeks. The vendor handles hosting, updates, and support.
- Generic by design. It was built for every company, not yours. You reshape your workflow around the software, not the other way around.
- 70% of what you need. Your team opens it, can't find what they need, and goes back to the spreadsheet. Feature requests go into a backlog you don't control.
- Tool sprawl. By the time you hit 100 employees, you're running 25–30 SaaS tools. Half overlap. Most are on auto-renewing contracts. IT is managing licenses across all of them.
Option 2
Build custom
- Exactly what you want. Purpose-built for your workflow, your data, your team.
- 6–12 months to ship. Requirements gathering, design sprints, development cycles, QA, deployment. By the time it launches, the requirements have changed.
- $100K–$500K+ to build. You need a product manager, a design team, and a dev team. Or you hire a dev shop that bills weekly and hopes the spec was right.
- You need engineers. Most mid-market companies have an IT department, not a software engineering department. IT manages laptops and SaaS licenses. They don't build software.
Option 3
Kyro
- Custom outcome, not custom development. You get a platform purpose-built for your workflow. You don't manage engineers, sprints, or a product backlog. You describe the problem. We handle everything else.
- Working prototype in days. Not a wireframe. Not a slide deck. A functioning platform with real data you can click through on your phone.
- Business experience behind the build. Goldman Sachs, Wharton, 10+ years as CFO and CEO. The output matches how you think because we've sat in your seat.
- We might tell you not to hire us. Before we recommend building anything, we research your specific problem. If there's existing software that gets the job done, we'll tell you and help you evaluate it. We'd rather have an honest conversation than a sale.
Typical cost
$500–$5,000/mo per tool
Multiplied across 5–10 tools that don't talk to each other. And let's not even talk about per-user fees.
Typical cost
$100K–$500K+ upfront
Plus $15K–$25K/month to maintain
Typical cost
From $10K setup + $1,500/mo
Everything included. No per-seat fees. No surprises.
Dev shops need a spec. We just need a conversation.
Dev shops sell hours. They need a requirements document, a product manager to write it, and 6–12 months to deliver. They're building what you specced. If the spec was wrong, you find out at the end.
We sell outcomes. We need a 30-minute conversation. We've lived the problems you're describing: the manual analysis, the email chains, the spreadsheets that should have been a platform three years ago. We don't need you to translate your business into engineering requirements. We already speak both languages.
The result: you get a custom platform without hiring a single engineer, without managing a development project, and without waiting six months to find out if it works. You see a working prototype before you commit to anything. If it doesn't solve the problem, we try a different approach until it does.
We do the homework first
Before we recommend building anything, we research your specific problem. What tools already exist in your space? What are they good at? Where do they fall short? What do they cost?
If there's an off-the-shelf tool that gets you 90% of the way there for a reasonable price, we'll tell you. We'll help you evaluate it. We'll walk you through the trade-offs: what you gain in speed, what you give up in flexibility, and where you'll hit the ceiling in 18 months.
When we do recommend building custom, you know we mean it. We've already ruled out the alternatives. That's not a sales tactic. It's how we'd want someone to advise us if the roles were reversed.
The math that matters
Here's how the math typically works. Someone on your team is spending 20–30 hours a week on manual work a platform could handle. Reading reviews, building reports, reconciling data, chasing email chains. At fully loaded cost, that's $80,000 or more a year. The platform costs less than $36,000. It pays for itself before the end of year one.
Add workflow tools that eliminate 30 minutes of busywork per location per cycle across dozens of stores, and you're recovering hundreds of hours a year that were going to PowerPoints and email chains. Whether you redeploy that time to higher-value work or reduce headcount is your call.
If the math doesn't work for your specific situation, we'll tell you.
A typical engagement
First-year cost
$28K–$46K
$10K setup + 12 months at $1,500–$3,000
Year 2+ cost
$18K–$36K
Monthly retainer only. No setup fee again.
Typical annual savings
$80K–$150K+
Recovered labor, faster decisions, eliminated tools
Payback period
3–5 months
Not sure whether to build, buy, or call us?
Tell us what problem you're trying to solve. We'll give you an honest recommendation, even if the answer is to buy something off the shelf. The first conversation takes 30 minutes.