---
title: "Build Buy Software"
headline: "Build Buy Software — 420 legal-tech products, one published scoring formula"
description: "Build Buy Software: an independent legal-tech directory Ali Ahmed built end-to-end — 420 products scored by a published, unbuyable formula. Pre-launch."
canonical_url: https://alioahmed.com/work/build-buy-software
type: case-study
role: "Product & Editorial Lead"
date_label: "May 2026 – present"
status: pre-launch
date_modified: 2026-08-09
author:
  name: "Ali Ahmed"
  url: https://alioahmed.com/
  orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4265-3295
key_figures:
  - "420 products across 10 categories"
  - "387 vendors in the directory"
  - "~2,000 statically generated pages"
  - "27 published, DB-verified articles"
person_same_as:
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  - https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4265-3295
  - https://x.com/Alioahmed_
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related:
  - https://alioahmed.com/work/paralegent
  - https://alioahmed.com/work/cognilium
full_corpus: https://alioahmed.com/llms-full.txt
site_index: https://alioahmed.com/llms.txt
---

# Build Buy Software

> Build Buy Software is an independent directory of 420 legal-technology products, each scored by a published, unbuyable formula. Ali Ahmed built it end-to-end — the product, the data model, the scoring methodology, roughly 2,000 pages, and the quality gate that fails the build on any editorial violation. It is currently pre-launch.

**Canonical URL:** https://alioahmed.com/work/build-buy-software  
**Role:** Product & Editorial Lead — May 2026 – present  
**Summary:** Build Buy Software: an independent legal-tech directory Ali Ahmed built end-to-end — 420 products scored by a published, unbuyable formula. Pre-launch.

## Key figures

- **420** — products across 10 categories
- **387** — vendors in the directory
- **~2,000** — statically generated pages
- **27** — published, DB-verified articles

The incumbent legal-tech directory ranks products with an unexplained black box. Build Buy Software was built as the structural opposite: the BBS Score is a 0–100 formula with published weights, computed from public evidence only — and it is unbuyable. Sponsorship appears in zero ranking queries; paid placement cannot touch a score.

### Built like a data product, not a listicle

- Provenance fields on every product, and figure re-verification after every data change — 27 published articles in which every statistic is computed from the database itself.
- A State of Legal Tech 2026 report (plus generated PDF) computed live from the directory’s own data, and a 48-prompt legal-AI prompt library.
- A CI quality gate that fails the build on hype vocabulary or editorial violations.
- Strategy grounded in a 20-track, adversarially-verified research program.

### Where it sits in the story

Ali is Product & Editorial Lead: he directs the product and bylines its data-analysis articles. The credibility hook is earned, not claimed — he previously led product on Paralegent AI, so the directory’s analysis of the legal-AI market comes from someone who has actually built in it. The venture is pre-launch: built, content-complete, and verified on a private preview, with the domain decided but not yet live.

## FAQ

### Is Build Buy Software live?
Not yet — it is pre-launch. The product is built and content-complete on a private preview: 420 products, ~2,000 statically generated pages, and 27 published analyses, with the domain decided and launch pending.

### Who is behind Build Buy Software?
Ali Ahmed is its Product & Editorial Lead — he built the directory end-to-end and bylines its data-analysis articles. The directory is independent, and its credibility rests on data methodology, not legal practice.

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