Stackery

Market position

The company described itself in 2018 as a leader in serverless operations for the enterprise market, a characterization echoed by its lead investor; press coverage in 2019 described it as one of the Pacific Northwest's rising tech companies working in one of the most active areas of cloud technology.

Combines a visual architecture editor with direct editing of infrastructure-as-code templates stored in the customer's own Git repository, adds environment and secrets management for multiple AWS accounts, keeps AWS credentials out of Stackery's hands via a limited-permission deployment role, and layers deployment pipelines and health observability over standard AWS SAM tooling.

Technology

The platform is built around AWS's open-source Serverless Application Model (SAM) templates and also supports other serverless template formats including the Serverless Framework; the Design Canvas is supported for AWS SAM and CloudFormation stacks. Supported AWS services referenced include Lambda (with Node.js runtimes up to Node 14 and TypeScript, container image packaging via ECR, and memory up to 10,240 MB), API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, Step Functions state machines, CloudFront CDN and CDN Functions, Lambda@Edge and VPC configuration. AWS account linking uses a CloudFormation-created IAM role scoped to deployment automation, and deployments can use configurable CodeBuild images and deployment hooks.

Go-to-market

Self-service sign-up and in-app setup guiding users through linking Git and AWS accounts, supported by documentation, tutorials, blueprints and in-app chat support with engineers, alongside a direct enterprise sales function led from 2018 by a VP of Worldwide Sales.

Engineering, development and operations teams adopting serverless architecture, with a stated emphasis on enterprises migrating to the cloud and productionizing serverless workloads.

Geography

Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, United States. The platform supports deployment into AWS regions, with account linking dependent on regional availability of AWS IoT Core.

History

Founded in 2016 in Portland, Oregon, Stackery went through the Techstars Seattle accelerator, where CEO Nate Taggart pitched at Demo Night in 2017. It released its product and secured its first customers during 2017, raised $5.5 million in April 2018 alongside the release of its Health Metrics Dashboard, and continued shipping platform features — Step Functions support, Lambda container images, expanded pipelines, Node 14 runtimes and CloudFront CDN Functions — through at least August 2021.

Risks & controversies

In March 2019 GeekWire reported that public allegations of psychological abuse and intimidation made in December 2017 by the former spouse of CEO Nate Taggart, engineering manager Kate Taggart, had led PDX Women in Tech to decline a $500 sponsorship from Stackery and created a lasting rift between the company and that community organization. Nate Taggart acknowledged a difficult marriage but categorically denied any allegation of abuse; no police reports were filed. Following GeekWire's inquiries, Stackery's board engaged law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, which retained MFR Law Group to audit the company's workplace and culture; the preliminary findings reported no indication of inappropriate communication or conduct, including discrimination or harassment, at the company, and did not reference the allegations concerning the CEO's former spouse.