He Left the Corporate World for a Spreadsheet Problem. Eight Years Later, It's Paying Off.
Story & Context
In 2017, Rachit Khator was sitting inside a Fortune 500 company in the US, managing workflows on spreadsheets - the same way most teams still do. He looked around, saw the gap, and quietly started building a solution.
A year later, he quit his job, moved back to India, and launched Stackby: an AI-first, no-code platform designed to help non-technical users build custom databases and business apps without writing a single line of code.
Eight years on, Stackby is generating 7-figure ARR with 15–20% month-on-month growth - built without chasing investor rounds or making noise on social media.
What makes Rachit's story worth paying attention to isn't the outcome. It's the thinking behind it - the decisions he made about positioning, distribution, and where not to spend time.
Key Insights
Positioning Against a Dominant Player Is Harder Than It Looks
Stackby was built in the shadow of Airtable - and Rachit is candid about how disorienting that was early on.
When you're not first, you don't get to define the story. You have to find a wedge - something specific Airtable doesn't do well - and own that narrative instead.
The tension between going wide (like Airtable) and going narrow (deep use cases) cost them time. Committing to a direction earlier would have been more efficient.
In tools like this, reliability and UX depth matter more than feature velocity. Shipping fast feels productive. Shipping trust takes longer but compounds.
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Distribution Is Not Optional
This is the part most builders skip or underestimate - and Rachit is direct about it.
"Products don't grow - distribution systems do. If you're not thinking about how users will find you before you build, you're already behind."
Stackby's growth has come through multiple channels, not one magic lever:
Product-led growth
SEO (and now AEO - Answer Engine Optimization for AI search)
Referrals and community
Influencer marketing and user-generated content
Email
The per-seat subscription model also means revenue grows as teams expand — which rewards retention as much as acquisition.
The Template Play That Actually Worked
Rachit's team identified that templates could drive both SEO traffic and activation - but instead of building an elaborate marketplace, they did the simple version first.
They manually created 20–30 templates and published basic landing pages.
They tracked which templates got organic traffic and which ones users actually duplicated.
Most were ignored. A few drove disproportionate results.
They then doubled down only on high-intent categories: marketing, project tracking, and CRM.
The lesson here applies far beyond templates: launch the minimum version, measure what actually works, and invest only in what earns it.
Six Things Rachit Would Tell Every Early Builder
→ Ride existing demand, don't create new categories. Build on top of proven tools like Shopify, Slack, or Google Sheets. It's easier to win a share of an existing market than to educate a new one.
→ V1 should feel almost too simple. One use case, one persona, one clear outcome. Don't build a platform - build a tool that solves one job extremely well.
→ Don't overbuild the tech stack. Use no-code where possible. Use APIs aggressively. Your goal isn't clean code - it's fast learning.
→ Talk to users, but filter what you hear. Users describe solutions, not problems. Ignore 70% of feature requests and build for patterns, not individuals.
→ Stay capital-efficient longer than feels comfortable. Raising early can kill discipline. Constraints force better thinking and faster iteration.
→ Slow, invisible progress is still progress. The early phase is quiet. Most people quit because it's not immediately rewarding - not because it's impossible.
What You Should Do Now
Practical Next Steps
If you're building a SaaS or tool: Map your distribution plan before your product roadmap. Ask yourself how users will discover you, share you, and come back to you. These answers should shape your build priorities.
If you're a freelancer or creator: Study how Stackby used templates as an SEO and activation engine. You can apply the same principle — create a small set of free resources, track which ones get traction, then build more of what works.
If you're exploring no-code tools: Stackby is worth exploring for managing client data, projects, or workflows. Check out their template library to understand what's possible without writing code.
If you're early in your build: Rachit's framework — ride existing demand, build embarrassingly small, stay capital-efficient — is one of the more grounded roadmaps for bootstrapped founders you'll find. Print it out
You can follow Tobias Günther on LinkedIn and his personal website — he shares coaching insights, founder reflections, and lessons from two decades of building.
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