Stackby is making it easy for SMEs to automate their workflows

Even as SMEs embrace digitization, they struggle with finding products that best suit their scale of businesses. Small firms do not have the luxury of having an IT engineer to on-board applications needed in the ordinary course of business.

While there is a plethora of software-as-a-service (SaaS) startups offering no-code, low-code products to SMBs, they cannot be adapted without initial on-boarding.

This is where Stackby wants to make a difference.

The Surat-based cloud software startup was set up as a collaborative database SaaS venture that helps small businesses create and customize their business tools without any technical intervention. This means that any small company can sign up with the startup and start using its tools immediately with no on-boarding required.

Founded by Rachit Khator in July 2019, Stackby promises to bring structure and visibility to workflows, enabling easy collaboration among employees, and customization specific to the company’s needs.

Rachit quit his corporate job in 2018, and returned to India to build Stackby after years of struggle in dealing with multiple spreadsheets and applications at work. 

"The idea was conceived in 2017 while I was dealing with multiple spreadsheets that became cumbersome to manage, and I saw the need of software tools that empower normal end-users to build their own applications versus moulding them in vertical applications," he says. 

Before Stackby, Rachit spent four years working in venture capital and product management for a large Fortune 500 in Michigan, US, where he led investments and worked with over 15 technology startups. He holds dual master’s degrees in Applied Physics from NIT Surat, India and Entrepreneurship from the University of Michigan. 

Why Stackby?

Startups and SMBs rely on spreadsheets to manage their unstructured workflows, and tools like project management, CRM, or ERP that are available in the market don’t give the users the flexibility to customise.

"Teams and businesses end up using multiple tools to manage their data and collaboration for various functions. Over a billion people use spreadsheets, of which 90 percent of them use it to organise their work," says Rachit. 

Stackby helps SMEs automate their workflows by bringing a familiar spreadsheet-style interface, functionality of databases, and business APIs like MailChimp, Clearbit, YouTube, Twilio, etc, in a single cloud-based platform that requires no coding knowledge. 

Rachit claims that there’s no such similar product in India at present. Well-known SaaS firms like Zoho or Freshworks have a suite of tools that companies use mostly for structured workflows like a CRM.

"We are unlike structured CRM tools, as the database canvas built out is really determined by the end user and can be used across various use- cases, CRM being one. We have the vision to consumerize enterprise software," he says. 

The startup enables teams to work in real time from across geographies. A nifty feature, Rachit explains, is connecting columns on spreadsheets to third-party APIs.

“The product connects to over 20 native integrations like YouTube, Clearbit, FullContact, Hunter.io, Facebook, Intercom, Slack, etc to pull data automatically and push messages via SMS, WhatsApp, Slack to automate work,” he adds. 

The first pay check

Stackby was soft launched at the RISE Conference in Hong Kong in July 2019, post which it acquired its first 10 paying clients only through word of mouth and referral. The insights from the early customers helped Rachit and his team to shape the product. 

The startup’s first client was a small textile business that wanted to manage its export order production and it helped an ad agency that was managing campaigns to get automated reports from YouTube.

Stackby has partnered with Startup India to give Indian startups free access to the Stackby platform for three months.

"We did a global launch in January 2020 and we currently serve over 1,200 paying and highly engaged customers from 70 countries and growing by 10 percent week on week," says Rachit. 

Rachit has invested $100,000 in Stackby from his personal savings. The US-registered startup operates out of Surat and Pune and has a team of 14 people.

Building a startup out of a Tier-II city is not easy. Surat’s technology ecosystem is in its infancy stage, as it hosts more service-led technology companies.

"It’s not done much. Many couldn’t believe we could build a product like this operating out of a Tier II city. But, nevertheless, where there is a will, there is a way," says Rachit.

The business model 

Stackby has a freemium, recurring subscription-based model, where users can sign up for a free trial after which they subscribe to one of the paid plans, starting at $5/user/month for a freelancer or entrepreneur, or $9/user/month for small teams.

The current clients for the startup include businesses in the US, India, the EU, and Southeast Asia across advertising, media, digital marketing, event management, co-working spaces, real estate segments, among others.

Stackby competes with SaaS companies like Zoho and Freshworks.

"We’ve built Stackby to give non-technical people power to computation and build their own tools to manage their work, their way. We are providing the building blocks," says Rachit.

The startup is looking to end calendar year 2020 with a revenue of $1 million.

Credits

This [adapted] article was originally seen in YourStory which can be see here. All rights reserved by author Vishal Krishna, YourStory, and of course: Stackby. This article was reshared.

Personal Comments

I'm re-sharing this article for quite a few reasons. The first being the purpose Rachit and his team have: to help SMEs achieve operational excellence without requiring technical experience. This is the same thesis RPA Tools has.

Which brings me to the second reason: As I have gotten to know Rachit, it's amazing to see how quickly him and his team execute on the ever-changing market conditions. We both bond over the same mission, which doesn't mean we need to compete against each other.

Both of us believe in being collaborative in our efforts to attack one of the biggest problems small businesses and startups are facing. We also believe that this market is actually a larger opportunity than the Enterprise market as more smaller companies are grabbing more market share. Less is more.

There's no doubt in my mind that Stackby is going to achieve incredible success over the coming years.

The last thing I'll mention is why this problem needs to be solved. Personally, I have dealt with the same issues that are mentioned above. Every company -- to my understanding -- has inefficient processes around data organization and data analysis.

Between Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel, I think I have wasted a good year of my career on administrative tasks like finding certain sheets, not knowing which file is the correct one, and when it comes to the consolidation of data, you can forget it!

We just went through an incredible decade of SaaS products, which have revolutionized the business world. However, now there are so many tools out there that companies are facing diminishing returns because there is information all over the place.

With companies like Stackby and RPA Tools, who believe in citizen development and the no code framework, we can focus on the innovation of the next era: Customer Experience (CX).

As Stackby becomes adopted by more SMEs, we are going to enter a world where automation eliminates the 40% of time spent on "admin tasks" and enables people to engage in more creative, personalized solutions.

It's my core belief that over the next decade, the largest differentiation between successful companies and unsuccessful companies will be the amount of time, money, and resources dedicated to customer experiences. The ones who make CX their #1 priority will develop more brand equity, and therefore, become much more successful than their competitors.

This will also be the downfall of the large incumbents who have more money and resources than these smaller businesses, but they will lose if CX and customer service don't become their main initiative.

Of course, we will see how everything turns out soon enough.

And you know which team I'm on! :)

-Jonathan Kogan (Co-Founder & CEO of RPA Tools)

P.S. Thank you for everything Rachit!!