Jake in front of a flame-painted VW bus, Allentown PA, 1998

Jake
Vigneri

Circa 1998, Allentown PA

About

I wanted to be a mechanic when I was a kid so I got a job at a local shop, started sweeping floors and left knowing how to do most of what a real mechanic does. After college, my retail background and a lifelong love of RadioShack led me straight to IT procurement. It made more sense than it sounds. Side note: I also bought Tesla at $20 and sold at $90, so take my judgment with a grain of salt.

Twenty years later, the hunch on software sourcing looks pretty good. Macmillan, The Federal Reserve, BlackRock, GE Vernova. Book publishing, finance, global manufacturing. Different industries, same problem: nobody had figured out how to buy software properly. So I stopped solving it one company at a time and built something.

When I'm not working I'm skiing with my family or thinking about cars. I also recreated Winamp because today's streaming players just don't cut it.

Jake Vigneri, present day
Present day
Building
Consulting
Acuity Sourcing

My way of fixing the same problem at every company I've ever worked at.

acuitysourcing.com
SaaS product
Pario

A tool I built to help buyers show up informed.

planwithpario.com
Side project
jvPlayer

Winamp-inspired music library on top of YouTube. Because today's streaming players just don't cut it.

jvplayer.vercel.app
Thinking
Writing
Essay
Your software isn't expensive because the code is heavy
An essay on software pricing, the three taxes buyers pay, and where real negotiating leverage actually lives.
Essay
How Procurement Savings Become a Measurement Fiction
An essay on how procurement teams measure savings and why the numbers often don't add up.
Visual Work
Where the Deal Is Actually Won
Where the Deal Is Actually Won
Framework
The Software Sourcing Lifecycle
The Software Sourcing Lifecycle
Framework
Why Your Software Is Expensive
Why Your Software Is Expensive
Explainer
The Marginal Cost of Software
The Marginal Cost of Software
Explainer
The Procurement Cheat Code
The Procurement Cheat Code
Note
One of these things is not like the others
One of These Things Is Not Like the Others
Note