Itai Sadan

Itai Sadan · 2026-04-06T04:03:56.772Z

AI just broke that equation for the “build vs. partner vs. buy” playbook. What used to take months can now take days. What used to require a team can now be done by one great developer. Yet many companies still default to partnerships or acquisitions. From experience, acquisitions take 6–12 months to close and often 1–2 years to deliver real value. Partnerships aren’t easier. You compromise on fit, pricing gets messy, and margins get squeezed. A recent example: we explored partnerships in a new area. Every option we looked at was too expensive for our customers and the products contained much more functionality than we actually needed. So my co-founder spent 2 weeks and built ~50% of the product himself. It works well and integrates perfectly with our stack. That moment made it clear: building is now the default. So when should you still partner or buy? • You lack deep expertise • The risk is too high (infrastructure, regulatory compliance, security, financial) • Your brand alone can’t win in the category • You need access to a customer base you don't have AI didn’t kill partnerships or M&A. But it raised the bar. A lot. For example, at Duda we power over 1M websites. Over the years, partners have trusted us to ensure sites are fast, high-performing, compliant (GDPR, accessibility), and secure. That expertise doesn’t happen overnight. It’s built through years of operating at scale, handling edge cases, and protecting customers from real risks like downtime or DDoS attacks. It’s also what lets our customers sleep at night knowing their sites will be up and running in the morning.