Podcast Summary: The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström

Episode #740: Navigating Build vs. Buy with Luv Kapur, Bit

Date: September 25, 2025
Guest: Luv Kapur, Staff Engineering Lead at Bit

Main Theme: Navigating Build vs. Buy—The InnerSource Advantage in an AI-Driven World

This episode of The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström dives deep into the contemporary "build vs. buy" dilemma facing organizations, especially as AI and composable software models become the norm. Greg speaks with Luv Kapur from Bit, exploring how an InnerSource approach—adapting open-source philosophies within an organization—offers an innovative middle path, balancing agility, collaboration, and long-term value creation.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Introducing InnerSource: Definition and Rationale

[03:27-05:23]

• InnerSource = Applying open-source principles (collaboration, transparency, reuse) within an organization’s firewall.
  • “It brings all the successful principles of open source to within the company's own environment.” — Luv Kapur [03:52]
• Contrast to Traditional Models: InnerSource aims to break down internal silos—making code assets discoverable and reusable for anyone in the organization.
• Cultural Shift Required: Moves the mindset from “my team’s code” to “our company’s asset.” Needs a central platform to discover, version, and document components.

2. Build vs. Buy vs. Compose: Elevating the Decision-Making Framework

[05:23-07:57]

• Traditional Binary Limitation: Organizations feel forced to choose between building internally or buying externally.
• InnerSource Adds 'Compose': Now, teams can assemble new solutions from internal assets before resorting to buying or bespoke building.
• Key Benefits:
  • Strategic Optionality: Better visibility into existing capabilities and gaps.
  • Reduced Vendor Lock-in: Buying only what’s truly needed minimizes reliance on third parties.
  • Accurate Cost Discovery: Understand true build vs. buy costs based on historical internal data.
  • “Once you have an internal set of inner source components, it gives you visibility on what your capabilities are… why you're looking for a vendor or an option itself.” — Luv Kapur [05:51]

3. AI as a Game-Changer in the Decision Spectrum

[07:57-11:09]

• Beyond Cost and Time: AI accelerates development; new factors become critical:
  • Context: Is the AI capability core to your business? If so, build in-house.
  • Data Control: Who owns the data—particularly important with sensitive or customer information.
  • Change Velocity: AI models improve rapidly; are your needs evolving at the same pace as the technology?
• “With AI, it’s no longer about cost and time… The other factors that become more relevant are context, control over the data… and the change in velocity.” — Luv Kapur [08:48]

4. Marketing & Non-Technical Stakeholders: Aligning Capabilities and Needs

[12:01-14:47]

• Disconnect Problem: Business leaders often see IT work as “projects,” while IT sees it as “capabilities.”
• Suggested Mindset Shift: Focus on the capabilities and gaps, not just deliverables. This visibility paves the way for more informed, cooperative build vs. buy/conversation.
• “For leaders, stop thinking in terms of projects and start thinking about capabilities…if business leaders start looking at IT as a black box, this is where the disconnect and frustration happens.” — Luv Kapur [12:51]

5. Metrics & Measuring Success in an InnerSource World

[14:47-18:18]

• Beyond Traditional Metrics: Delivery on time and budget matter, but ecosystem-based metrics matter more:
  • Reuse: Are components being leveraged across teams?
  • Velocity: Is time to market for new projects improving?
  • Collaboration: How fluidly can headcount and resources shift between priorities?
  • “With InnerSource, you take an ecosystem based metrics, which is reuse, velocity, collaboration.” — Luv Kapur [15:29]
• Headcount Liquidity: Ability to redeploy talent across changing priorities with less friction.

6. Transforming Collaboration and Transparency

[18:18-21:04]

• Enhanced Visibility: Every component is documented, versioned, and discoverable, supporting easier cross-team collaboration.
• Product Managers’ Shift: Moves from estimating “net new” projects to assembling from visible, existing capabilities.
• “When product managers sit with stakeholders…With InnerSource, the conversation completely changes because they have a complete idea of what exists within their inner source ecosystem.” — Luv Kapur [18:51]

7. Security and Governance in Collaborative Environments

[21:04-23:28]

• Standardization = Security: Built-in processes mean every change undergoes the same rigorous review, governance, and validation automatically.
• Component Model: Easier to identify, fix, or roll back vulnerabilities without broad disruptions.
• Dependency Graphs: Enable tracing issues and dependencies with precision.
• “When you build on blocks, you have what we call insight into a dependency graph of the code itself… isolating security fixes becomes very seamless.” — Luv Kapur [21:35]

8. ROI, Executive Mindset, and Long-term Value

[23:28-26:23]

• Decomposing Requests: Help non-technical teams visualize “big asks” as assemblies of smaller, reusable components.
• Two-way Transparency: Executives gain visibility into how capabilities are built, IT aligns better to business needs.
• “A component is not just code for a developer. It has documentation, it has live previews… The documentation explains why it is being built, what capabilities it serves.” — Luv Kapur [24:27]

Memorable Quotes & Notable Moments

• “The only way we could move fast and safely was treating our code and as a portfolio of assets.” — Luv Kapur [02:07]
• “It’s no longer my team's code. This is our company's asset. It breaks down silos, it creates a collaborative ecosystem within the company itself.” — Luv Kapur [03:52]
• “AI actually introduces a different way to think about the build it versus buy because it’s no longer about cost and time with AI, because AI is here to speed up a lot of development.” — Luv Kapur [08:48]
• “You should be able to move developers from one place, one project to the other without added overhead and friction, which is extremely hard to do with the traditional way of doing things.” — Luv Kapur [15:29]
• “The real value where I saw [InnerSource] was the change in perspective of product managers…” — Luv Kapur [18:51]
• “If I change this, what am I breaking?… When you build on blocks, you have insight into a dependency graph…” — Luv Kapur [21:35]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:10 — Episode theme/introduction
• 02:07 — Luv Kapur introduces InnerSource & his role at Bit
• 03:52 — Definition and benefits of InnerSource
• 05:51 — Build vs. Buy vs. Compose—strategic third path
• 08:48 — AI's influence on the build vs. buy conversation
• 12:51 — Bridging the gap between business leaders and IT
• 15:29 — New metrics for measuring success (reuse, velocity, headcount liquidity)
• 18:51 — How InnerSource changes collaboration, especially for product managers
• 21:35 — Security and risk management with composable components
• 24:27 — Shifting the executive mindset to component thinking and long-term value

Closing Reflection: Staying Agile

[26:37-27:10]

• Luv Kapur emphasizes the importance of rapid feedback loops and breaking down tasks to remain agile as both a leader and a technologist.
  • “If you have a shorter feedback loop and you have a faster iteration on it, I believe you can tackle as big of tasks. It is not daunting anymore for you.” — Luv Kapur [26:37]

Takeaways:

• InnerSource is gaining traction as a “third way” forward, especially in technology organizations grappling with AI and rapidly evolving business needs.
• Success depends on cultural change, transparency, visible metrics based on ecosystem efficiency, and executive buy-in.
• New tools and platforms (like Bit) are enabling this transformation, allowing organizations to move faster, safer, and more collaboratively.