More than a podcast host: Matt Watson’s Stackify raises $6M in rapid scaling maneuver

Stackify expects growth on the heels of a freshly announced $6 million funding raise, explained Matt Watson.

“We have still never taken any outside, institutional VC money. All the [investments] we’ve raised have been from local Kansas City investors, which is pretty cool,” Watson, founder and CEO, said noting the company’s recent raise was a mix of debt and equity with a capital infusion from Dallas, Texas-based Cypress Group Capital.

While Watson also serves as co-host of the popular Startup Hustle podcast — as well as co-founder of the podcast’s startup backer Full Scale — his priority is scaling Stackify, he said.

“Business is doing good, we continue to grow and expand. … We’re still focused on being the best APM product designed for software developers. That’s our passion — helping software developers ship more code and spend less time fixing bugs,” Watson added. 

The injection follows a $2.74 million raise in January and is expected to help the startup double the size of its team in 2020.

“Our company’s kind of in that weird stage where we’re not quite big enough for traditional VC funding and we’re kind of too big for early stage funding,” he said. “So that’s why we’ve continued to raise money from angel investors and [with this round] some venture debt from Cypress Capital.”

Stackify continues to show signs of momentum beyond funding, Watson noted. 

Matt Watson, Stackify

The company was ranked the 379th fastest growing company in the country, on the Inc. 5000 list in August. 

“I mean, we’re not boiling the ocean over here, but we’re just slowly growing a little every month and it just adds up over time,” Watson told Startland News when the list was released.

Click here to read more about Stackify’s place on the Inc. 5000 list. 

While all signs point to success for Stackify, raising money isn’t glamorous, Watson cautioned. 

“It’s a nightmare,” he said, urging founders to weigh all their options before committing to capital. 

“Unless you’ve got something that’s truly, rapidly growing and everybody’s going to throw cash at you because It’s stupid not to — it’s really difficult,” he said. “It is so difficult to raise money.”

Watson’s previous startup, VinSolutions, sold for $147 million in 2011 and never took on capital, he added. 

Click here to read more about Watson’s endeavors, including Full Scale — the company he co-founded with Matt DeCoursey.