Marcella Clark

Marcella works at Bird, where she helps large organisations run customer communications across email, SMS, WhatsApp, RCS, push and voice. Much of her work comes down to a question more companies are asking since AI changed the economics of software: should we keep buying this, or could we build it ourselves? Having worked with both established enterprises and companies in high-growth markets, she has seen where in-house builds succeed and where they quietly fail. She is equally honest about the other side: parts of the communications stack are harder than they look, and some SaaS genuinely earns its price. That balance is what she brings to this session.She hosts the discussion as an open debate and expects to be challenged on the build case as much as anyone defending the buy side.