One Size Fits None

Last Updated: March 11, 2025

It no longer makes sense to develop the same software for every customer.

Almost all enterprise software starts with the ambition to solve one niche workflow extraordinarily well. But as the company scales and onboards more customers, each one has slightly different requests. The startup tries to accommodate by piling on "bells and whistles," and the product morphs from world-class at one workflow to mediocre for every workflow.

The scrappy startup has turned into the new incumbent and is ready for the next batch of startups to start serving that one niche workflow 10x better. And so the cycle continues.

Break the Wheel

This time around, change the strategy. Listen to customers and deliver a platform uniquely tuned to each of their workflows. Work side-by-side with your customers to design exactly what they need.

Is this just consulting? It would have been in 2010. But as the cost of developing software trends toward zero, there's no reason every user has to share the exact same experience.

Not long ago, before Paul Graham, Robert Morris, and Trevor Blackwell built Viaweb in 1995, software was hand-delivered on CDs. Since then the friction to deliver software to customers has exponentially decreased. Today, it's almost trivial to develop a software platform.

The Extra Mile

Go hand-deliver a customized AI solution. The payoff is a real transformation in how your customers do business, not just another "one-size-fits-all" piece of bloat.

We're at a moment in software history where you don't need to compromise. You can build a lean foundation (80% of the core building blocks), then deliver a bespoke experience that solves real problems. Most software products eventually regress to the mean. Go the extra mile, build what's actually needed, and don't be afraid to do it differently for every customer.