Agency built client a "workflow marketplace" for $89k over 14 months. I replicated it in 29 minutes and added features they couldn't deliver. This is how agencies price themselves out of the market: THE NIGHTMARE PROJECT SaaS CEO, Rachel: "We spent $89k and 14 months on an internal workflow marketplace" Me: "What were you trying to build?" Rachel: "Let employees request automations, track status, share workflows" Me: "And it doesn't work?" Rachel: "Half the features are broken, the other half are too slow" 🚩 Red flag: $89k for an internal tool that failed THE AGENCY'S "SOLUTION" What they delivered after 14 months: - Custom React frontend (buggy) - Node.js backend (performance issues) - MongoDB database (constantly crashes) - AWS infrastructure (overengineered) - User authentication (broken half the time) - Workflow builder (unusable interface) - Request system (emails get lost) - Status tracking (never updates) Monthly hosting costs: $2,400 Monthly maintenance: $4,500 Employee adoption rate: 12% Rachel: "We paid enterprise prices for a prototype" THE 29-MINUTE REBUILD Discovery call ended, opened Skada.ai: "Build internal workflow marketplace: employee request system → approval routing → automated workflow creation → status tracking → workflow sharing → usage analytics → team collaboration" 29 minutes later: ✅ Intuitive request interface ✅ Automated approval workflows ✅ Instant workflow generation ✅ Real-time status tracking ✅ Team workflow library ✅ Usage analytics dashboard ✅ Collaboration features ✅ Mobile-responsive design THE LIVE COMPARISON Rachel: "Can our team test both systems side by side?" Me: "Absolutely" Employee workflow request test: Agency System: - 6 screens to submit request - 4 different login attempts - Request disappeared twice - 12 minutes to submit - Status: "Pending" (never updated) My System: - 1 screen workflow request - Single sign-on - Request submitted successfully - 23 seconds total time - Status: "Auto-approved, building workflow"

Building an AI agency has me juggling more AI tools than I ever imagined 😅 Most days I’m switching between Gemini and ChatGPT for analysis and writing. Recently, I’ve been using NotebookLM to turn 70+ page pdfs into podcasts I can listen to on the go. And with Google’s Nano Banana, I can edit photos exactly how I want with a single prompt, something that used to take me hours in Photoshop or Canva. The AI world moves fast, but the possibilities? That’s where it gets exciting.