Rachit Khator, the founder and CEO of Stackby, shares his inspiring journey from working in a corporate venture firm to launching a successful no-code platform that empowers users without technical backgrounds. He discusses the strategic decisions that fueled Stackby’s growth to 75,000 customers while competing against well-funded rivals. Rachit reflects on the entrepreneurial spirit in India's smaller cities, the importance of customer feedback, and innovative growth strategies, all while navigating the challenges of building a sustainable business in a competitive landscape.
Stackby empowers non-technical users by merging spreadsheets, databases, and automation tools into a no-code platform for custom solutions.
The company's bootstrapped growth model has attracted over 75,000 customers while maintaining profitability through a strong customer-centric approach.
Stackby's API-first strategy promotes seamless integrations, optimizing workflow management for teams and fostering a user-driven ecosystem for product development.
Deep dives
Understanding Stackby: A No-Code Solution
Stackby is a no-code platform that merges spreadsheets, databases, and automation tools to empower users without technical skills to create their own custom solutions. It caters to businesses and teams, allowing them to streamline workflow management while consolidating data in a single platform. Stackby's approach enables users to automate previously manual processes, facilitating smoother collaborations within organizations. The platform's flexibility allows users to quickly design tools specific to their operational needs without needing a developer's input.
Emphasizing Bootstrapping and Customer Focus
The founder of Stackby has successfully built the company using a bootstrapping model, maintaining profitability since its inception despite operating in a competitive landscape. With a customer-first ethos, Stackby focuses on building features that are essential and valued by its users, fostering organic growth without considerable marketing expenditure. The company has captured the interest of over 75,000 businesses globally, primarily without costly paid advertising strategies. This customer-centric approach not only enhances user satisfaction but also drives word-of-mouth referrals, critical for sustainable growth.
Strategic Use of API and Automation Components
From early on, Stackby differentiated itself by being an API-first platform, allowing it to offer seamless data integration from various sources. This capability was initially developed to solve frequent data management challenges faced by marketers and sales teams, making it a practical choice for data-driven users. With more than 50 integrations available, Stackby simplifies the workflow of marketing teams who typically juggle multiple tools, thereby consolidating their processes into one platform. By maintaining this API-first mentality, Stackby continues to adapt and enhance its product to meet user needs effectively.
Harnessing Community and Product-Led Growth
The company has established communities and partnerships to boost user engagement, including an affiliate program that connects with agencies and consultancies worldwide. This strategy fosters a user-driven ecosystem that enhances visibility while building a loyal customer base. Stackby uses feedback gathered through its open product roadmap to prioritize features that resonate with its users, ensuring that the platform evolves in alignment with customer expectations. By empowering users to influence product development, Stackby nurtures a sense of ownership and satisfaction among its clientele, promoting further adoption.
Vision for Future Growth and AI Integration
As the company considers scaling, there is a clear intention to leverage AI technology to enhance the platform's capabilities. The goal is to develop verticalized solutions for distinct user personas while utilizing generative AI to streamline various processes. This direction not only addresses current market needs but also positions Stackby for amplified growth as it ventures into more complex use cases across industries. Ultimately, the founder envisions an IPO-able business model reflecting a significant opportunity for expansion within the fast-evolving landscape of no-code solutions.
Rachit Khator is the founder and CEO of Stackby, a no-code spreadsheet and database app builder that allows business users to create powerful spreadsheet-like applications with data links, automations, and workflows. Rachit and his team of 34 employees live in Surat, India, north of Mumbai.
Stackby started when Rachit was working for a corporate venture firm in Michigan, doing repetitive manual data imports and analysis in Excel. He hired a developer to build a better tool and started to sell Stackby to early customers. They followed customer feedback to build an inexpensive and easy-to-use app that competes well with VC-funded competitors like AirTable for specific use cases.
This bootstrapped company has grown in 4 years to serve 75,000 free and paid business customers. Now they are profitable and growing at 15% per month, upselling free business users to paid plans. Rachit has big ambitions for Stackby to serve millions of customers–and be an example success story in the Surat software community.
This podcast is sponsored by Full Scale, one of the fastest-growing software development companies in any region. Full Scale vets, employs, and supports over 300 professional developers, designers, and testers in the Philippines who can augment and extend your core dev team. Learn more at fullscale.io.
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