{"id":1298,"slug":"rule-rent-or-use-free-for-data-about-the-world","title":"R1 — Rent (or use free) for data ABOUT THE OUTSIDE WORLD; you will never out-collect the Census Bureau","kind":"rule","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","smb-owner","candid-team"],"topics":["agency-methodology","open-data","data-infrastructure","data-moats"],"reference_body":"**Rule:** When the data describes the *outside world* — demographics, exchange rates, weather, transit, average labor costs, industry benchmarks — recommend renting it (the cheapest decent vendor) or using the free public version. **Do not build it.**\n\n**Why:** You will never out-collect the Census Bureau, the Bank of Canada, OpenET, NASA, or NOAA. Vendor benchmarks that tell a café owner their food cost is 5 points above industry norm are worth far more than the few hundred dollars they cost. The free public sources ([[fred-api-free-no-cost]], [[bank-of-canada-valet-api-stats]], [[census-business-builder]], [[gtfs-open-transit-standard-2005]], [[openet-irrigation-data-free]]) are higher quality than any SMB could build.\n\n**How to apply:**\n- Default recommendation for any \"we need data about X (where X is external)\": free first, then the cheapest credible commercial source.\n- Reserve build effort for the [[rule-build-only-on-data-you-already-own]] case.\n- Honest test: *if the data is about the outside world, someone else already gathers it better than you can.*","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"fred-api-free-no-cost","title":"FRED API (St. Louis Fed) — free with API key; covers GDP, inflation, employment, interest rates","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"bank-of-canada-valet-api-stats","title":"Bank of Canada Valet API — free, no key required; ~500,000 daily public requests across ~12,500 series and ~4.5M observations","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"gtfs-open-transit-standard-2005","title":"GTFS — open transit data standard created Google + TriMet 2005; 10,000+ operators, 100+ countries; MobilityData stewardship","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"census-business-builder","title":"Census Business Builder — free US Census tool; pick business type + location → demographics, consumer spending, competition","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"openet-irrigation-data-free","title":"NASA / USDA OpenET — free Landsat-based evapotranspiration data via API for automated irrigation decision-support","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"a16z-empty-promise-data-moats-2019","title":"Andreessen Horowitz, \"The Empty Promise of Data Moats\" (Casado & Lauten, 2019) — most \"data network effects\" are really scale effects that diminish","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-data-driven-tools-smb-june-2026","title":"Research brief: live data and data-driven tools for SMBs — when it's an edge, when it's overkill (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"article-data-tools-for-smbs-edge-or-overkill","title":"Article (draft): Before you buy that data tool, ask one question — would your competitor's version look exactly like yours?","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-default-buy-portal-not-build","title":"R1 — Default to BUY, not build, for client portals; recommend a horizontal platform ($19-79/mo) or the bundled vertical-SaaS portal","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-for-internal-default-cheapest-tool-that-fits-stack","title":"R2 — For internal dashboards, default to the cheapest tool that fits the existing stack: Power BI Pro for M365 shops, free Looker Studio for Google/marketing data, Metabase for SQL-comfortable / future-embedding","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-20T16:57:38.978Z","updated_at":"2026-06-20T16:57:38.978Z"}