Get Big or Get Small...

Meta just cut its AI developer pricing to a quarter of what Claude and OpenAI charge. Is that a smart land grab or a sign of weakness? Jared Blank and Andy Hoar (Brian's on vacation) break down the emerging market for cheap AI tokens, then dig into the trend reshaping B2B distribution: get big, get small, or get squeezed. Ferguson's $1.6B FloWorks deal and Affiliated Distributors' latest acquisition show the scale side. A small Akron, Ohio doorknob distributor shows the other. Plus: IBM's worst trading day in 115 years, and what it might mean for AI infrastructure spending. Topics covered: Why Meta cut AI token prices by 75%, and what happens next The emergence of token arbitrage (OpenRouter) and off-peak AI pricing Ferguson's $1.6B acquisition of FloWorks and what it means for distribution TAM Affiliated Distributors' acquisition of supplyFORCE Smart scale vs. dumb scale: when getting bigger stops working The case for specialization: a doorknob distributor's turnaround IBM's historic 25% stock drop and the AI infrastructure spending debate Subscribe to Friday 15 for a weekly conversation on B2B ecommerce, digital strategy, and where the industry is headed.