Luke Sandelands on replacing Shopify apps with server-side pipelines
Luke Sandelands founded Stack Architect after seeing Shopify store owners lose money to third-party apps that hurt both margins and page speed. His company builds custom server-to-server web-hook pipelines that replace those subscriptions with backend architecture. The useful part of his story is not that AI is doing everything, but that it is handling the repetitive parts while customers themselves are arriving better informed than before.
AI is saving time on integration work, not replacing the core thinking or writing. In this market, customers are already using ChatGPT to diagnose tracking problems before they reach out, which means the real sales work now starts with specific technical language rather than generic pitching.
What’s the quick origin story of your brand, and what makes your product or positioning genuinely different from other options in your niche?
I spent years working in various business operations roles before shifting into web development where I quickly noticed the standard Shopify app ecosystem was destroying profit margins and page speeds. I noticed Store owners were bleeding hundreds of dollars a month on third party apps that dragged down their sites. With this in mind, I founded Stack Architect to do the exact opposite. We replace expensive subscription apps with pure server-less backend architecture by building custom web-hook pipelines that operate entirely server to server.
Since launch, what have been the 1-2 real turning points for your brand: decisions, pivots, or experiments that noticeably changed your growth or profitability, and what did you learn from them?
Most of our inbound work comes from developers and founders finding my open source code on GitHub or stumbling across our technical breakdowns while trying to fix specific API errors. I really wish that more business came directly from marketing agencies before they build out their tech stack. They often waste months trying to patch broken browser pixels before finally realizing they need a server side architecture to fix their attribution gaps.
Which 2-3 channels drive most of your revenue right now, and what have you learned about making those channels work in your category?
We have handed over the tedious work of structuring JSON payload maps and generating boilerplate code documentation which saves us hours on new web-hook integrations. Alongside this, I took back all the technical writing and marketing copy. I did try letting a language model draft blog posts but they sounded incredibly sterile. Explaining complex engineering problems to frustrated founders requires a human voice that speaks directly to their specific pain points.
How are you thinking about search in 2026, across Google, AI assistants like ChatGPT, and other discovery platforms? What have you changed to stay visible?
Yes, their technical awareness has increased massively. Customers rarely send us generic requests about setting up a store because they already know that iOS privacy updates broke their tracking. We are definitely seeing the impact of AI assistants here. Founders are using ChatGPT to diagnose missing conversion data and then the AI tells them they need a web-hook based data pipeline instead of a browser pixel. They then search for those technical terms and land directly on our blueprints.
What do you do to turn first-time buyers into repeat customers and advocates? Are there specific experiences, content, or community touches that work especially well?
I’d advise them to move every critical operational and tracking function to the backend immediately. The customer browser has become a hostile environment that is filled with ad blockers and tracking prevention protocols, so it is now essential to learn how to orchestrate web-hooks and APIs server to server. Also, I would tell them to completely ignore any new analytics tool that relies on injecting more JavaScript into a storefront.
Thank you to Luke Sandelands and the team at Stack Architect for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
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