In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Julianna Lamb, co-founder and CTO of Stytch. Stytch is a comprehensive tool for identity management. Its auth and fraud prevention capabilities improve both security and user experience. Last valued at $1.0B, the company now works with over 1000 customers.
Join us as we discuss:
00:00 Preview: early product surprises for the Stytch team
01:53 Introduction to Stytch and identity management
05:15 The founding insight for Stytch
10:27 Validating the idea and Minimum Viable Product
12:27 Choosing a customer segment and MVP
14:33 Surprises and patterns in early customers
17:57 Lessons from Plaid and building a flexible solution
19:46 Approach to developer marketing
22:20 Approach to developer awareness and hiring
26:32 Starting a company in an unusual environment
30:53 Impact of AI on authentication and fraud prevention
34:25 Advice for developers starting a company
Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and
Julianna Lamb is the co-founder and CTO of Stytch.
Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.
