StartStak
A go-to-market engine for founders, from first cohort to recurring revenue.
- Role
- Backend lead · Payments & infra
- Client
- StartStak
- Domain
- B2B SaaS · Go-to-Market
- Live
- startstak.ai
StartStak
- Architected the full backend schema & REST API
- Stripe subscriptions with lifecycle management
- Dual-mode CloudFront: signed URLs + public delivery
- Google Calendar auto-invites on event registration
The challenge
A founder-education startup needed to host gated workshop content, run cohort-based programs, handle Stripe subscriptions with lifecycle states, and serve large video assets to paying members only, all without burning cash on a custom build.
The approach
Architected the full backend schema and REST API on top of Directus. Shipped Stripe subscriptions with trial, active, past-due, and cancelled lifecycle handling. Implemented a dual-mode CloudFront layer: signed URLs for paid content, public delivery for marketing pages. Wired Google Calendar auto-invites on event registration.
The outcome
StartStak went live with a full founder membership product, events, content, and billing, without a single in-house backend engineer on their side.
Highlights
- 01
Architected the full backend schema & REST API
- 02
Stripe subscriptions with lifecycle management
- 03
Dual-mode CloudFront: signed URLs + public delivery
- 04
Google Calendar auto-invites on event registration
What shipped
- Cohort management with scheduled content releases
- Stripe subscriptions with trial, pause, cancel & reactivation
- Secure video delivery with short-lived CloudFront signed URLs
- Google OAuth + Calendar auto-invites for events
- Public marketing pages served via public CloudFront distribution
Stack
- Node.js
- Directus
- PostgreSQL
- Stripe
- AWS CloudFront
- AWS S3
- Google OAuth