Stytch's Julianna Lamb on the future of passwords

Stytch's Julianna Lamb on the future of passwords

Author: Unusual Ventures January 14, 2024 Duration: 36:46

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 

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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/.


Behind every so-called overnight success in software, there's a long, often messy journey of finding exactly what customers need and how to deliver it. That's the central theme explored in Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures: The Product Market Fit Podcast. This series is built for those in the trenches of early-stage software companies, from founders just starting out to leaders tasked with building something from nothing. Each episode moves beyond theory, offering grounded conversations with people who have actually navigated these challenges. You'll hear them unpack the real work of identifying a true market need, the nuances of early hiring decisions, and the practical steps of crafting a go-to-market strategy. Fundraising, often a opaque process, gets broken down into more understandable components. The focus remains consistently on the actionable and the specific, providing a kind of audio manual for the foundational phase of a business. Tune in for a candid look at the less-glamorous, critical work that separates an idea from a viable company, all brought to you by Unusual Ventures. This podcast serves as a resource for turning those initial concepts into a sustainable operation, one hard-won lesson at a time.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 53

Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures: The Product Market Fit Podcast
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