Build vs Buy: What Belongs in Your MVP and What You Should Rent

Early startups should build only the core feature that proves the business idea in the MVP.

Common infrastructure like authentication, payments, email, file storage, and search is usually better rented from third-party services.

Because vendor lock-in is a risk, teams should wrap providers behind thin internal interfaces to keep switching costs low.

This lets founders move faster, avoid rebuilding commodity systems, and focus scarce engineering effort on product differentiation.