The Build Log

Real-world notes for founders navigating the messy road from idea to launched product.

Jan 12, 20268 min read

Building an AI-Native Marketing Automation App: Why Bolt-On AI Fails

Most marketing automation apps treat AI as a feature to add later. Here's why that approach fails—and how to architect AI-native marketing automation from day one.

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Building Your First Marketing Automation MVP: A Technical Founder's Guide

MarTech

Jan 9, 20267 min read

Building Your First Marketing Automation MVP: A Technical Founder's Guide

A practical architecture guide for technical founders building marketing automation systems. Skip the overengineering, ship faster with PostgreSQL-first patterns, and avoid the mistakes that sink 74% of startups.

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Agentic AI in Marketing: Moving Beyond Chatbots to Autonomous Campaign Management

MarTech

Dec 12, 20258 min read

Agentic AI in Marketing: Moving Beyond Chatbots to Autonomous Campaign Management

The distinction between generative AI and agentic AI reshapes what marketing automation can achieve. While chatbots respond to prompts, agentic systems orchestrate entire campaigns—from research to execution to optimization—without human intervention at each step.

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MarTech

Nov 26, 20258 min read

The $50B Martech Opportunity: Where AI Agents Are Creating New Market Categories

AI agents are reshaping the $200B+ martech landscape at unprecedented speed. The autonomous marketing AI segment alone is growing at 43.8% CAGR, with enterprises allocating over half their AI budgets to agentic systems.

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From Platform to Product: When Your Marketing Automation Becomes Your Competitive Advantage

MarTech

Oct 31, 20258 min read

From Platform to Product: When Your Marketing Automation Becomes Your Competitive Advantage

Most companies treat marketing automation as a cost center. The ones winning treat it as proprietary infrastructure. Here's how to know when your martech stack should become a competitive moat.

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Composable CDP Architecture: Reverse ETL vs Traditional Customer Data Platforms

MarTech

Oct 12, 20259 min read

Composable CDP Architecture: Reverse ETL vs Traditional Customer Data Platforms

Traditional CDPs are losing ground to composable architectures built on data warehouses and reverse ETL. Here's how to evaluate which approach fits your organization's data maturity, budget, and activation needs.

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Real-Time Personalization Architecture: Building Beyond Batch Segmentation

MarTech

Sep 9, 202510 min read

Real-Time Personalization Architecture: Building Beyond Batch Segmentation

Batch segmentation treats users as they were yesterday. Real-time personalization responds to who they are right now. Here's the architecture that makes sub-second adaptation possible.

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Klaviyo Alternatives for Technical Founders: When to Build Custom

MarTech

Aug 7, 20259 min read

Klaviyo Alternatives for Technical Founders: When to Build Custom

Klaviyo's February 2025 pricing shift to active-profile billing changed the calculus for technical founders. Here's when alternatives make sense and when building custom actually pays off.

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Marketing Automation for Vertical SaaS: Industry-Specific Patterns That Work

MarTech

Jul 26, 202510 min read

Marketing Automation for Vertical SaaS: Industry-Specific Patterns That Work

Generic marketing automation platforms fail vertical SaaS companies because they ignore compliance requirements, operational data, and industry-specific workflows. Here's how to build automation that actually works for your vertical.

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