[jimkleiber]

I've been thinking a lot about the buy (or rent) vs build problem and one factor that keeps screaming at me is: who do I want to maintain it?

If my team or I want to maintain it, then build. If not, then buy/rent. I've built way too many things over the last few years only to realize again and again that things we build will need to be maintained by someone.

As you say, if it's a competitive advantage, then it makes sense for me to fix it, update it, adapt it, etc., otherwise it may be too costly to get distracted with maintaining it internally and easier to pay someone else to do that.