Stacker Raises $1.7M to Empower No-Code App Building

Stacker, a firm focused on empowering individuals without coding experience to develop software using spreadsheets, has announced the completion of a $1.7 million seed funding round.

Stacker operates within the expanding no-code and low-code technology sector, an area that TechCrunch has closely followed over the past year. The company’s unique approach and recent financing are noteworthy aspects of this growing trend.

According to Michael Skelly, Stacker’s Chief Executive Officer, the inspiration for his company stemmed from his previous work at an asset management firm, where he successfully created internal applications utilizing Salesforce’s platform. He later recognized the challenges of replicating this process without similar support, observing that teams requiring even minor modifications often faced significant delays due to limited developer availability.

Reflecting on his experience building tools on the Salesforce platform, he resolved to create a solution that would enable non-technical users within organizations to construct their own applications, leveraging their intimate understanding of their specific needs.

This concept will resonate with those familiar with the no-code landscape, where a common goal is to enable non-technical teams to independently build applications. However, Stacker differentiates itself by capitalizing on the widespread familiarity with spreadsheets and the desire to avoid building applications entirely from scratch.

Users of Google Sheets and Airtable, a popular database tool, can leverage Stacker to create applications directly from their existing spreadsheets. Skelly believes that many individuals already utilize spreadsheets as a form of software, representing a workaround for non-developers to achieve their desired functionality. Stacker aims to transform these spreadsheets into fully functional applications, allowing end-users to customize and refine them, thereby empowering non-technical teams.

Stacker’s methodology also addresses the challenge of requiring users to begin with a blank canvas, as the service automatically generates an initial application based on the user’s selected Google Sheet or Airtable data.

While this may appear to be a limited application, it is not. Skelly clarified in an interview with TechCrunch that his company is not focused on assisting non-developers in creating large-scale consumer products. Instead, the goal is to facilitate the development of practical internal applications. This market is demonstrating promising results, with Stacker currently serving 500 customers. TechCrunch previously reported that the company had 250 customers in August 2020, following its participation in Y Combinator’s demo day. The company has now achieved $1 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), indicating substantial growth.

Initialized Capital spearheaded the funding round, with contributions from Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, and Makerpad. The funding was secured in September 2020 but announced recently to avoid the typically slow period around the holidays. This timing aligns with the standard timeframe for seed-stage investments.

Stacker’s team of 12 is now focused on future development. Skelly shared with TechCrunch that some users are already employing Stacker to build applications for daily use, beyond simple customer portals. The company intends to invest in enhancing this capability and expanding the range of data sources that can be integrated – including various SaaS applications – to support more complex application use cases.

Stacker primarily serves small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as its customer base, as larger organizations typically possess dedicated internal development resources. When asked about potential future acquisitions, Skelly jokingly responded to a suggestion from TechCrunch not to be acquired by Airtable, stating that he anticipates his company will be the one to acquire Airtable within five years.