Whether you’re selecting a technology partner or a technology platform, the most important thing you want to look for isn’t just features, or price, or a well-orchestrated demo. It’s context.

The Higher the Baud Rate, the Faster the Connection

I’ve always gravitated toward people and systems where I can connect at the highest possible baud rate. That old modem analogy still holds: the higher the baud rate, the faster the connection, the more meaningful work you can do together. And that only happens when someone already understands your world.

I’ve applied this idea repeatedly. When building our new website, I didn’t choose a generic agency. I hired people who had been shaping positioning and messaging for digital infrastructure businesses for decades. Folks who understood colocation, hosting, compute, storage, networking. Who knew what BSS and OSS stood for, and more importantly, what actually lived behind those acronyms. We didn’t need translation layers. We could move fast.

The same principle guided how we built uLogic. I wanted to work with people who had already solved the hardest technology and business problems. People who had designed foundational software, built real data models, and proven through execution that they could deliver sophisticated systems that actually work in production. Not theory. Not slideware. Execution.

And this isn’t just about backend architecture. Context shows up in user experience too. The best systems present the right information, at the right level of detail, for the people who actually run digital infrastructure businesses. Too much detail creates noise. Too little creates blind spots. Knowing where that line sits only comes from lived experience.

This came up recently in a conversation with a colleague who has spent years deploying CPQ systems. He told me something that stuck: the hardest part of any CPQ deployment isn’t the software. It’s understanding the customer’s business model well enough to structure the product catalog correctly. Without that context, even the most powerful CPQ platform underperforms.

I’ve seen the same lesson play out in vendor selection. One colleague described a long, rigorous RFP process designed to optimize value by balancing cost and outcomes. But an unintended consequence was that industry expertise was underweighted. They passed on a true expert because the hourly rate was higher and chose a lower-cost alternative that claimed equivalent capability. Two years and millions of dollars later, none of the real problems were solved.

I’ve also seen the opposite. We recently brought on a consultant whose rates were objectively high. But because she had deep contextual expertise, she delivered more executed value—faster—than any prior effort. The cost wasn’t an issue, because context was the multiplier.

Context Accelerates Trust

And there’s a deeper layer to all of this: trust. Trust is one of the hardest things to build in business and in life. Normally, it takes time: seeing decisions, watching actions, experiencing consistent value creation. But context accelerates trust. When you can connect at a high baud rate, credibility is established quickly. High-value interactions happen earlier. If there were a way to measure a trust-building coefficient, contextual experience would be one of the largest contributing factors, if not the largest.

This idea also connects to something broader happening in the software industry right now. We’re seeing valuation pressure across traditional software and services companies. Many of these platforms are beautifully built: CRM systems, ITSM systems, accounting systems, document management tools, etc... They’re excellent general-purpose tools.

But they’re general-purpose by design. They may be lightly tailored to industries, but they aren’t built from the ground up for a specific business model. And that’s where I believe the next wave is heading.

Context matters in software too. We’re going to see a rise in true niche SaaS platforms. Systems designed specifically for an industry, starting with the data model first, not the UI, not the adapters, not the marketplace. Platforms where the business logic, operational reality, and financial structure of the industry are embedded at the core.

When those systems are built on modern architectures, and combined with AI and agent-based technologies, they unlock something fundamentally different. AI becomes dramatically more powerful when it sits on top of a data model that already understands the business. Context-first software doesn’t just coexist with AI. It amplifies it.

And that brings us back to the core idea. Context matters. In people. In partners. In platforms. In trust.

When you’re evaluating systems to run your digital infrastructure business, or partners to help you build it, context is the difference between slow progress and real momentum. Between wasted years and accelerated outcomes. Between software that merely looks good and systems that actually move your business forward.