How Stape Turned a Technical Problem Into a Scalable Business

Server-side tracking has quickly moved from a niche concept to a critical part of modern marketing infrastructure, especially as privacy changes reshape how businesses collect and use data. But in 2020, when most companies were still figuring out what it even meant, Denis Golubovskyi and his co-founder, Ira Holubovska, saw an opportunity.

In this interview, Denis shares how they built Stape from an early idea into a global, bootstrapped SaaS company with more than 100 team members. He breaks down how they found their first customers, why education became their biggest growth driver, and what it takes to succeed in a fast-moving and highly technical space.

Tell us about yourself and your business.

My name is Denis Golubovskyi, and I’m one of the founders of Stape. I started the company together with my co-founder, Ira Holubovska. Before Stape, we were already working in digital marketing and analytics, so we understood how important good tracking is for online businesses.

Stape is a software company that helps businesses set up server-side tracking. In simple words, we help companies collect marketing and analytics data in a more reliable and flexible way. Our customers are businesses, agencies, marketers, and technical teams from all over the world. We started with server-side Google Tag Manager hosting, and later built more tools and products around it.

How does your business make money?

Stape makes money by providing hosting infrastructure for server-side tracking and additional features that improve data quality.

We have subscription-based plans depending on usage and needs.

What was your inspiration for starting the business?

In 2020, Google released a new way to track user data more securely and accurately, server-side Google Tag Manager. 

We (Denis and Ira) quickly saw the potential of server-side tracking. We wanted to implement it on our own projects, but realized there were no simple tools, no clear documentation, and no easy way to get started.

So we thought: Why not build something that makes it easier?

How and when did you launch the business?

We started in 2020. We were the first to launch a hosting solution for server-side GTM. At a time when few even knew what server-side tagging was, we were already building tools to simplify it.

In 2021, we rebranded to Stape, and things started to take off. We moved beyond hosting and began creating custom tags, apps, and tools for the analytics & marketing community.

How is the business funded? 

Stape is fully bootstrapped. We built it without outside investment and grew it from customer revenue.

For us, this meant we had to stay practical from day one. We focused on real problems, real customers, and healthy growth.

How did you find your first few clients or customers?

Our first customers came in a pretty natural way. We were already in the analytics and marketing space, so we knew where the early users were. At that time, server-side tracking was still a niche topic, so the first customers were mostly people who were actively searching for this kind of solution.

Content helped a lot, too. We created tutorials, guides, and useful tools because there wasn’t much clear information online. People found us through Google, communities, and recommendations. In the beginning, word of mouth was very important for us.

What was your first year in business like?

The first year was intense. We were doing everything ourselves — product, support, content, customer communication, and problem solving. Since the market was still new, we were not only building a product, but also explaining to people why they needed it.

We worked a lot, and there were many unknowns. But at the same time, it was exciting because we could see real interest from users. We started making money quite early, but the first year was mostly about learning fast, improving the product, and building a strong base for the future.

What strategies did you use to grow the business?

One big growth strategy was education. Since server-side tracking was still new for many people, we spent a lot of time creating useful content, guides, and documentation. This helped people understand the topic and also helped them trust us.

Another important thing was making the product simple. Server-side tracking is technical, but we wanted to make it easier for normal marketers and business owners, too, not only developers. That helped us stand out.

Word of mouth also played a huge role. When customers had a good experience, they told other people about us. Agencies became especially important because one agency could bring many end clients.

We also kept expanding the product. We started with hosting, but later added gateways, apps, templates, and other tools. This helped us serve more customer needs and grow the business in a more stable way.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?

One of the biggest challenges was being early. It sounds good, but it also means that many people do not yet understand the market or the product. So we had to spend a lot of time educating customers and showing why server-side tracking matters.

Another challenge is that this space changes all the time. Privacy rules, browsers, ad platforms, and tracking systems are always changing. So we have to keep moving fast and keep improving.

What have been the most significant keys to your business’s success?

I think one big reason is that we started early and stayed focused on this space. We saw the shift toward server-side tracking before many others and spent years building around it.

Another key is listening to customers. A lot of our growth came from understanding what users really needed and building practical solutions for them.

And finally, I think consistency matters a lot. We kept improving the product, publishing content, helping customers, and building step by step. Over time, that creates trust.

Tell us about your team.

Today, our team is 110+ people, including employees and contractors. We are fully remote and work with people from different countries.

The team includes developers, support, marketing, product, operations, and other roles. Since we work in a fast-changing industry, having a strong team is very important for us.

What separates your business from your competitors?

I think one big difference is that we were early and built deep knowledge in this space from the beginning. We were not just following a trend later.

Another difference is that we try to make technical things easier. Some tools in this space are powerful, but hard to use. We try to balance strong technical features with simplicity.

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

Start with a real problem. It’s much easier to build a business when people already feel the pain and need a solution.

Also, do not wait too long for everything to be perfect. Launch faster, talk to users, improve quickly, and keep going. You learn much more from real customers than from planning forever.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned growing the business?

One important lesson is that good opportunities often look small in the beginning. When we started, server-side tracking was still a niche. It would have been easy to ignore it.

Another lesson is that simple wins. Even when the product is technical, customers want something easy to understand and easy to use. Making hard things simpler is often where the real value is.

What are some of your favorite books, blogs, podcasts, or YouTube channels?

I like practical business content more than theory. I also enjoy founder interviews, business podcasts, and content about product, growth, and building companies. Usually, I prefer honest, experience-based advice from people who have actually built something.