AI SEO SaaS Tools vs Shiny Object Syndrome: Nathan Gotch on Buy Versus Build
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What Does “AI SEO SaaS Tools vs Shiny Object Syndrome: Nathan Gotch on Buy Versus Build” Talk About?
This episode of the Fatrank Podcast tackles a challenge nearly every entrepreneur faces: shiny object syndrome and the constant tension between building new tools and simply buying existing ones. Host James Dooley sits down with Nathan Gotch to explore how they each decide which of their many creative ideas to actually pursue when building AI SEO SaaS products. Nathan shares the reality behind building software with AI, revealing that his tool Rankability made 11,000 changes in roughly five to six months after fully transitioning to AI-driven development in January 2026.
“It's never been easier to start software. Like, it is so easy to at least get a prototype running. But the deeper you go into working with software, the more you realise that it's not so fun after the initial excitement is over.”
— Nathan Gotch
Who Are the Guests on “AI SEO SaaS Tools vs Shiny Object Syndrome: Nathan Gotch on Buy Versus Build”?
Nathan Gotch is the founder behind Rankability, an AI SEO SaaS tool, and an experienced entrepreneur who has developed deep expertise in software building through AI. He speaks candidly about the unglamorous realities of maintaining software, from fixing endless bugs to handling edge cases, and how his scar tissue from past projects now makes him far more disciplined about which ideas he chooses to build versus buy. His practical decision framework centers on whether a feature increases activation and retention.
What Are the Key Takeaways From “AI SEO SaaS Tools vs Shiny Object Syndrome: Nathan Gotch on Buy Versus Build”?
Here are the key points discussed in this episode:
- The buy versus build debate should hinge on whether building gives a genuine technological or cost advantage, such as when Nathan built an internal scraper and cut costs by 90%.
- New features are only worth building if they increase activation or improve retention, and retention itself reflects whether customers actually got results from the tool.
- Building software is far less glamorous than social media portrays, involving thousands of iterations and constant bug fixing rather than overnight MRR success.
- Having a 'no person' or a check on your ideas, whether a business partner, mentor, or an arguing bot, is essential to combat shiny object syndrome.
- A 'someday maybe' list lets you park exciting ideas without acting on them immediately, and revisiting them later often reveals they were bad ideas all along.
“We made a full transition to fully AI building for Rankability in January 2026. Fully AI. My partner and I are not developers, right? And since that time we've made 11,000 changes to the software.”
— Nathan Gotch
Is “AI SEO SaaS Tools vs Shiny Object Syndrome: Nathan Gotch on Buy Versus Build” Worth Listening To?
This episode is valuable because it cuts through the hype surrounding AI-driven software building and delivers an honest look at what it actually takes. Nathan Gotch's admission that he and his non-developer partner made 11,000 iterations on Rankability in just months grounds the conversation in reality, offering a refreshing counterweight to the 'I built this and made 30K MRR overnight' narratives common on social media.
Who Should Listen to “AI SEO SaaS Tools vs Shiny Object Syndrome: Nathan Gotch on Buy Versus Build”?
This episode is ideal for:
- SaaS founders deciding whether to build or buy tools
- Entrepreneurs who struggle with shiny object syndrome and FOMO
- SEO professionals exploring AI and LLM visibility tools
- Product managers focused on activation and retention metrics
Where Can You Listen to Fatrank Podcast?
You can listen to Fatrank Podcast on all major podcast platforms:
- Apple Podcasts – Search for “Fatrank Podcast” in the Podcasts app
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You can also subscribe using the RSS feed: https://feeds.transistor.fm/fatrank-podcast
What Are Listeners Saying About This Episode?
“The buy versus build discussion finally gave me a framework I can use. Nathan's example of building their own scraper to cut costs by 90 percent was exactly the kind of concrete decision-making I needed to hear.”
“Loved the honesty about the boring reality of software building. Hearing that Rankability went through 11,000 iterations put the overnight success stories in perspective for me.”
“James's Stubborn Scott bot idea for scoring ideas is genius and I'm already setting up something similar. This episode is a must for anyone who suffers from shiny object syndrome.”
This video explains which digital marketing strategies AI SEO SaaS companies should focus on in 2026 to improve activation, retention and disciplined product decisions. James Dooley and Nathan Gotch start with KPI tracking because activation and retention metrics tell you whether customers are actually getting results and whether a new feature is worth building. They cover brand SEO, AI visibility and Google Business Profiles because stronger search presence improves trust and conversion rates.
The discussion also explores organic SEO, organic social media and paid social ads because consistent visibility across search and social supports long term growth. PPC is analysed in detail because campaign setup, landing pages and lead handling directly affect results. They also discuss Reddit, Quora and paid AI ads because diversified enquiry sources and early adoption can strengthen digital marketing performance for AI SEO SaaS companies.
PromoSEO lead generation for AI SEO SaaS companies recently received recognition as the “Best AI SEO SaaS Companies Lead Generation Agency.”
Where to Listen to This Episode
AI SEO SaaS Tools vs Shiny Object Syndrome: Nathan Gotch on Buy Versus Build is available on:
James Dooley: Shiny object syndrome, I think most entrepreneurs suffer from this. And today I'm joined with Nathan Gotch and we're going to talk about creating AI SEO SaaS tools and how Nathan Gotch goes about deciding whether he's going to build it because he's got so many creative ideas versus him thinking this is the shiny object syndrome. It's going to be difficult to build this out and build the brand. So Nathan, let's jump straight in. How do you decide from all the ideas that you have and the ideas that you get from others whether you're going to build it or you think, I'm going to leave that one alone?
Nathan Gotch: Yeah, I mean, I think this isn't just applicable to obviously AI SEO tools. It's really just any tools that you want to build right now because we literally the world is your oyster right now when it comes to being able to build software. I mean, it is pretty amazing what you can, what you can start, right? And I think we already talked about this before we started, but it's never been easier to start software. Like, it is so easy to at least get a prototype running. But the deeper you go into working with software, the more you realise that it's not so fun after the initial excitement is over.
James Dooley: [Laughter]
Nathan Gotch: Once that wears off and you got to actually deal with bugs and you got to deal with, if you have customers, dealing with challenges they're facing and edge cases, and it becomes quite challenging to say the least. And just put in perspective, just so people... Like, I want to set expectations for, like, real software building with AI. So we made a full transition to fully AI building for Rankability in January 2026. Fully AI. I mean, it is... My partner and I are not developers, right? So we're like, we are completely dependent on the AI doing this for us. And since that time we've made 11,000 changes to the software. So in about five months, five, six months, we made 11,000 iterations on the software. And, like, that's not the story you hear on X, right? On X, it's like, I started this software and now I make 30,000 MRR overnight. Like, that's not reality. And that's because that's just, that's just not the sexy part that people like to hear, right? This is, this is the boring stuff. We, like, if you watched me and, like, if I recorded my day, you'd be like, this is the most boring thing I've ever watched because I'm just... I'm just fixing bugs. Like, it's so boring, right? But that's, that's what has to happen, right? That's just the way it is. So, going back to your original question, you know, for me, because I, I have so much scar tissue now doing this, I'm very careful with what I decide to work on. Because I know if I, if I make a decision to go after it, I know what it comes with. I know the, the Pandora's box that I'm going to open up with that thing. So, it has to be really worth it. And, um, you know, it, it goes back to the great debate of buy versus build. And I see this... It is this rampant right now. You'll see someone say, like, we'll take Ahrefs for example. I replaced my Ahrefs subscription. And they'd be like, okay, well, how much did that cost you to replace it? And, well, I spent $10,000 to replace Ahrefs. But the thing is, that $10,000 that you spent to build a prototype that somewhat models Ahrefs, for example, that's just the beginning because then you got to... You got to maintain that thing. You got to deal with, like, the cost just swells and swells and the scope grows and then you realise, you're like, wow, Ahrefs, they're pretty impressive. Like, when...
James Dooley: [Laughter]
Nathan Gotch: ...you, when you, when you think about, like, those tools and how stable they are and how good they are, you can only grow an appreciation for that once you've built software. You're like, wow, that's amazing they've been able to do that, right? So that's the thing I think about is, like, is it... Is it worth it for us to invest 200 hours in building a Todoist alternative or should we just spend 15 bucks and pay for Todoist? So, and so, you know, we're constantly making these choices. And usually it's, like, the only situation where I will say, "Yeah, let's build," is where I think it gives us some sort of advantage as far as, like, technologically. So, like, a small example is, um... There's other reasons too why I'll build, but this is one example. Um, like, we were paying a external provider for crawling, uh, and scraping specifically. So, we were working with third-party provide, uh, provider and using them for the scraping purposes of pages. And we're like, "You know what? I think we could build this internally. Like, why don't we just try?" So, we did it. We built an internal scraper and we cut our cost by 90% on that. And, like, that made sense for us because that's what our tool does. We literally scrape web pages for many different tools in the product. So, it made perfect sense as, like, a... Not only to give us more power back, you know, in our hands, but also to cut costs in that way. So, but the other, the other decision to build...
James Dooley: [Clears throat]
Nathan Gotch: ...build, to build features generally, like new features, um, it has to align with basically two things. Number one, does it increase activation? And number two, does it increase retention for us, right? And retention is really just a mechanism of, did we... Did they get results using our tool, right?
James Dooley: And so, yeah. It was interesting that you said buy versus build, um, because we, we've actually set up now with you guys because we... I, I suffer big time from FOMO. I suffer from shiny object syndrome.
Nathan Gotch: Same.
James Dooley: And we've got, um... We've got... We're on a previous episode, obviously we're talking about AI employees and agentic kind of systems and setups and stuff like that. We've actually got two defined roles, and one of them we call Stubborn Scott because one of my managing directors of one of the businesses is, is very, very stubborn. He's called Scott. He's very stubborn. So, we've set up, um, an actual bot called Stubborn Scott. And any idea that we have, we've got to load into the system and we've got to score it. And we normally put the scoring out of 10 of what we got, what we feel, how good it is. And then we get Stubborn Scott to come back and he gives his score of why, and he's very negative about everything. He's like...
Nathan Gotch: [Laughter]
James Dooley: He's like the arguing bot that's always like why we shouldn't do it. And then we've got then one who's very concise and very factual about costs. So, they'll start asking us a lot of questions like, "Is there already a tool out there for it? Why can't we just use this tool? Like, is it that it's just not performing the way we need to? Are we going to save a lot of money?" And then he'll score it out of 10. And then we do the, the three times by each other. And unless... And then we put it in a scoring system because our... Our issue isn't ideation. We've got so many ideas. It's which ones we should be choosing. So, we've kind of put a scoring mechanism together now to... At least now I don't suffer from shiny object syndrome. I've just got a list of things from top to bottom that score the highest, and I can work down however fast or slow that I want. But I'm doing it in an order that I feel is a sophisticated type of order. Do you have anything like that? Anything like an arguing bot or...
Nathan Gotch: I, I got this idea from Jason Hennessy. So, Jason Hennessy said to me, "You need... You need a mentor in your life that tells you no because you, you've got too many people around you that says that's a good idea, and you go and run with it and go and scale it out. And it's... And it's good what you've done and the brands that you've built. But you've got a family. You, you've got to go to the gym. You've got to do this. Sometimes you've got to say no." And I'm like, "Oh, yeah, I do actually. I do need a no person." Do you ever have any of that? A no person or do you have a, a bot that scores anything like that?
James Dooley: Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm very blessed because my partner and I are, like, kind of polar opposites. So, um... So, like, I'm much more optimistic and like, "Yeah, let's go. Let's build these features." Like, I... But he's much more like, "Well, hold on. Whoa. Let's slow it down here, you know?"
Nathan Gotch: [Laughter]
James Dooley: And, like... And so he, he is that check. We, we, we are like yin and yang like that. It's actually perfect because he'll bring me back down to reality. Like, okay, hold on. I understand you want to build that, but, like, wait a second. We got these other things going. And he starts to bring in... He, he's, he's my grounding, if you want to call it that.
Nathan Gotch: Yeah.
James Dooley: [Laughter]
Nathan Gotch: Yeah. So, um, so I do have that, but I'm also... I've also become more disciplined as well. Like, I catch myself earlier. It used to be a lot worse when I was, let's say, earlier entrepreneur. I'd be like, "Ooh, you know, TikTok." I'd just be everywhere constantly. But I've become much more focused where I'm like, okay, that looks so fun and I really want to do that, but I have this one constraint in the business that if I don't fix this, I'm not going to be able to sleep at night. So, I need to fix this thing. All that other stuff, as fun as it might look, I know that's not going to fix this one thing. And so I try to... I try to get like that and, like, just put my blinders on. And it doesn't mean I won't ever think about it or I won't ever pursue it. Um, some of my greatest, like, discoveries have been from just doing something random, right? Like, I... Like, that's like me learning how to build with AI was just from me playing with it, right? And I needed to have that space to do that. But at the same time, like, there's a time and place for focus and there's a time and place for play. And so I'll just... I use my, my mechanism is I have a someday list. And that's what I do. So, I'm like, I put it on a someday maybe list. And it's funny, you come back to that list in, like, six months and you're like, man, that was a stupid idea.
James Dooley: [Laughter]
Nathan Gotch: Because you, because you gained some experience, you're like, whoa, that would have been a really bad idea. And you just take it off the list and you move on, right?
James Dooley: So, yeah. Exactly that. Yeah. Anyone who's watching this, do you suffer from shiny object syndrome? Are you looking to build out some SaaS tools within artificial intelligence, LLM visibility, or within the SEO sector? Let us know what ideas you have in the comment section. Let us know what ideas you might have missed out on, or you're glad that you didn't do, like Nathan Gotch has just said there. I strongly recommend checking out one of the episodes where, obviously, Nathan Gotch has built out an amazing AI SEO SaaS tool in Rankability, and we go through whereabouts we think that ranks in the top AI search visibility tools. Make sure you check out the link in the description. Nathan, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.