We don't just advise founders — we co-build companies with them. Stack Labs is a venture studio that combines capital, product engineering, and operational infrastructure to take bold ideas from zero to launch. Think Techstars meets a full product team.
Accelerators give you money, mentors, and 90 days. You're on your own to build the product, hire a team, and figure out go-to-market. Most founders struggle and many fail — not for lack of ideas, but for lack of execution infrastructure.
Stack Labs is different. We co-found. We embed our engineering and product team into your venture from day one. We don't write a cheque and wish you luck — we show up, we build, we sell, and we scale alongside you.
When you're in Stack Labs, you have the resources of an established company behind your startup — without giving up the speed, equity, and culture of a lean founding team.
Our engineering team designs and develops your product from sprint one. You get a fully staffed product team — not a list of vendor introductions.
Stack Labs takes equity in return for the infrastructure and engineering we provide. Skin in the game — aligned incentives from day one.
Leverage the Stack18 customer network, platforms, and partner relationships to get your first customers — before you've built a sales team.
Cloud infrastructure, legal, finance, compliance, hiring support — all shared across the Stack Labs portfolio, dramatically reducing your fixed costs.
| What you get | Stack Labs | Accelerator (YC, Techstars) |
Angel / VC Funded Alone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full engineering team from day one | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Cash investment or resources provided | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Shared cloud & legal infrastructure | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Day-one access to paying customers | ✓ | Sometimes | ✗ |
| Ongoing operational support post-launch | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| AI-native product architecture | ✓ | Varies | Depends on founder |
| Equity taken (typical) | 15–25% | 7–10% | 15–30% |
Stack Labs takes more equity than a traditional accelerator because we contribute significantly more — engineering, product, infrastructure, and market access. Our equity is earned through delivery, not just a cheque.
Every Stack Labs venture goes through a structured 16-week programme. It's intensive, fast, and built around one outcome: a working product in the hands of paying customers by week 16.
We spend the first week understanding the problem at a deep level — not just what the founder thinks it is, but what potential customers actually experience. Structured customer interviews, competitor analysis, and market sizing.
Technical architecture decisions made with future scale in mind. AI integration strategy defined. Data model designed. Stack selected. Everything documented before a line of code is written.
Who is the ideal customer? What does the sales motion look like? What's the pricing model? What does success look like in month 6? All defined and stress-tested before we start building.
Equity structure, legal entity setup, founder vesting schedule, and operating agreement finalised. We move fast but structure things properly from the start.
Two-week sprints with clear deliverables. The Stack Labs engineering team builds alongside the founder — core product features, integrations, and the AI layer all developed in parallel for speed.
We put working software in front of real users from week 5 onwards. Feedback is structured, not casual. We track usage, gather NPS, and make data-driven prioritisation decisions every sprint.
While the product is being built, we're simultaneously building the sales pipeline. Target customer list, outreach, discovery calls, and LOIs — so we have paying customers lined up before we launch.
Internal demo days every Friday with the Stack18 leadership team. Real feedback, hard questions, and course corrections made weekly — not at the end of 3 months.
Coordinated product launch with PR, community outreach, and platform distribution through Stack18's existing networks and platforms. We aim for paying customers within the first 48 hours.
First ₹10L ARR is the target before week 16. We track MRR, churn, and unit economics weekly. If we're off track, we adapt — not at the end of the programme.
Investor introductions from the Stack18 network, pitch deck refinement, data room setup, and prep for seed or pre-seed rounds. We don't just wish you luck — we open doors.
After 16 weeks, the venture graduates as an independent entity. Stack18 retains its equity stake and continues as a strategic partner and preferred technology vendor as you scale.
Our investment is primarily in-kind — engineering time, infrastructure, and operational support — valued at ₹50L+ per venture. This is supplemented with a cash component for working capital where needed.
A dedicated squad — product manager, 2–3 engineers, and a UI/UX designer — embedded in your venture for the full 16-week programme. Senior talent, not juniors.
AWS/GCP credits, CI/CD pipelines, monitoring, security tooling, and shared SaaS subscriptions. Everything a modern product team needs from day one.
Legal entity setup, finance, bookkeeping, compliance, and HR — handled by Stack18's operational team so founders can focus entirely on product and customers.
Access to Stack18's existing customer base across platforms, enterprise relationships, and an investor network for follow-on fundraising introductions.
A cash component for founder living expenses, travel, early marketing spend, and working capital needs during the build phase. Structured as SAFE or equity depending on the deal.
Weekly sessions with Stack18 leadership — product strategy, fundraising prep, customer development, and board-level thinking from operators who have built and sold products.
Stack Labs doesn't invest in every sector. We focus on areas where our team has deep expertise and where AI-native products can create a genuine, lasting competitive advantage.
Industry-specific SaaS products that replace generic horizontal tools with purpose-built solutions. We look for industries where incumbent software is outdated, expensive, and deeply unloved — but the switching cost has kept buyers captive. Healthcare ops, logistics management, legal workflow, manufacturing ERP, education administration.
Products where AI is not a feature bolted on — it is the core of what the product does. Autonomous agents, intelligent decision-support tools, AI-powered workflow orchestration, and systems that learn and improve with use. We especially back products that make existing non-technical teams significantly more capable.
The plumbing that makes B2B commerce work — procurement platforms, vendor management systems, B2B payment infrastructure, supply chain visibility tools, and marketplaces that bring efficiency to industries still running on phone calls and spreadsheets.
Tools that make other builders more productive. SDKs, APIs, developer platforms, data pipelines, monitoring tools, and infrastructure products that form the backbone of the next generation of software companies. We have particular conviction in the India-built, globally-deployed opportunity.
Stack Labs accepts 4–6 ventures per cohort from a competitive pool of applications. We evaluate on five dimensions — and founder quality always outweighs idea quality.
We don't require you to have a prototype, a deck, or traction. We do require you to know your market at a depth that most people never reach, and to have thought hard about why you are the right person to build this.
You understand your target market at a depth that would take an outsider years to acquire. You've worked in it, built for it, or lived the problem you're solving.
You see AI as the core of the product, not an add-on. You have a clear view of where intelligence creates an unfair advantage in your market.
You move fast. You make decisions with incomplete information. You're comfortable shipping imperfect things to learn, and you don't need consensus to act.
The problem you're solving is experienced by a large enough number of businesses that a ₹100Cr ARR outcome is plausible within 5 years.
We're going to be working together intensely for at least 16 weeks. We look for founders who want a genuine partner — not just resources.
Our own platforms were built through the Stack Labs model. Every new venture benefits from the same infrastructure, engineering, and market access that produced these.
India's SaaS discovery and procurement marketplace. Helps businesses find, evaluate, and buy software tools without the noise of aggressive vendor sales. 500+ products listed across 20+ categories.
The marketplace for autonomous AI agents. Businesses deploy pre-built AI agents for sales, ops, support, HR, and finance without writing code. 100+ agents, live in under an hour.
Visual data pipeline and transformation platform. Built for non-engineers who need production-grade data infrastructure without a data engineering team.
The next Stack Labs venture is being built. Applications for Cohort 3 are open.
Applications for each cohort open 8 weeks before the programme starts. The process takes 3–4 weeks from application to decision. We aim to give every applicant a clear, honest decision with feedback.
Fill in the application form — your background, the problem, the market, and why you're building this. No deck required at this stage. Takes 45–60 minutes.
We review every application within 5 business days. Shortlisted founders receive a 30-minute video call to discuss the opportunity and ask questions.
A 2-hour in-depth session with the Stack Labs team. We pressure-test the problem, the market, the product hypothesis, and the founder. No PowerPoint — just conversation.
Successful applicants receive a term sheet within 7 days of the deep dive. On signature, we start immediately — no waiting for the next cohort date.
If you have a question that isn't answered here, email us directly at Ventures@stack18.com. We respond to every message personally.
No. If you have deep domain expertise and a compelling problem, Stack Labs provides the engineering capability. We often match non-technical domain experts with technical talent from within the Stack18 team as part of the venture structure.
Typically 15–25%, negotiated based on the scale of contribution and the venture's maturity at entry. We take less equity if you're coming in with an existing product or early traction, and more if we're building from zero. All terms are transparent and negotiated fairly.
You can apply, but we expect full-time commitment from accepted founders by the time the programme starts. Stack Labs is an intensive, full-time engagement — it doesn't work part-time.
We're India-first but globally focused. Founders can be based anywhere, but we expect regular in-person collaboration during the programme — at least 2–3 weeks on-site in Jaipur for key milestones.
The venture becomes an independent entity. Stack18 retains its equity and remains a strategic shareholder and technology partner. Our engineering team can continue to support on a commercial basis as the company scales and builds its own team.
"The best startups don't fail because the idea was wrong. They fail because nobody had the execution infrastructure to turn the idea into a product, and the product into a business. Stack Labs exists to eliminate that excuse."
— Stack18 Founding Team
Drop us a line and a real person from Stack18 will get back to you within one business day — no bots, no auto-replies.
Reaching out from: Stack Labs