The 'Not Invented Here' Syndrome: Why Developers Waste Months on Setup

There is a disease that plagues software engineers. It's called "Not Invented Here" (NIH) Syndrome.

The symptoms are subtle:

• "I don't need a boilerplate; I can set up Next.js myself."
• "Why pay for Auth0? I'll just write my own JWT handler."
• "Tailwind components are too restrictive; I'll build a design system from scratch."

It feels like engineering. But it's actually procrastination.

The Cost of "Doing It Yourself"

When you decide to build your own authentication, payment logic, and UI components, you aren't just saving $200. You are spending your most valuable asset: Time.

Let's do the math. To replicate what Sabo offers out of the box, you need to:

1. Configure Next.js & TypeScript: 4 hours
2. Integrate Supabase Auth (with SSR): 12 hours
3. Build a Stripe Webhook Handler: 16 hours
4. Create a Blog System (MDX): 8 hours
5. Design & Build 50+ Components: 40+ hours

Total: ~80 hours. That's two full weeks of full-time work. And that's assuming you make zero mistakes.

Configuration is Not an Asset

Here is the hard truth: Nobody cares about your webpack config.

Your customers do not care if you wrote the auth middleware yourself. They care if your product solves their problem.

Every hour you spend configuring ESLint or fighting with Docker is an hour you are not building the features that make your product unique. It's an hour you are not talking to customers.

How to Cure NIH Syndrome

The cure is a shift in mindset. You need to stop thinking like a coder and start thinking like a founder.

A founder asks: "What is the fastest way to solve the customer's problem?" A coder asks: "How can I write the most elegant code?"

To ship a successful SaaS, you must be ruthless about outsourcing the "boring stuff."

Buying Time vs. Buying Code

When you buy a boilerplate like Sabo, you aren't just buying a zip file of code. You are buying 80 hours of your life back.

You are buying the ability to start your project on Day 1 with:

• A database that works.
• Payments that accept money.
• A landing page that converts.

This frees you to focus on the 10% of code that actually matters: your unique business logic.

Conclusion

The most successful founders I know didn't write their own billing systems. They used Stripe. They didn't build their own servers. They used Vercel.

And they didn't start from an empty folder. They used a boilerplate.

Don't let your ego kill your startup. Cure your NIH syndrome and start shipping.

Get 80 hours of your life back with Sabo.