Case Study: Stytch

Stytch is the most powerful identity platform built for developers.

Background

Stytch provides the most powerful Identity and Access Management infrastructure for developers, allowing companies to incorporate frictionless authentication options into apps and websites. Its technology improves user onboarding and retention by removing passwords from applications and replacing them with more secure and low-friction authentication options, including email magic links, one-click user invitations, biometrics, social logins, SMS, Whatsapp passcodes, and more.

As a startup sitting in an estimated $34 billion market, identifying market whitespace and impactful opportunities that align to business objectives and the product roadmap are critical to increasing brand awareness and securing targeted customers. Although known in the developer community, Stytch lies in a crowded security/IAM-focused market in which it’s repeatedly up against legacy providers and conglomerates like Auth0, Google Firebase and AWS Cognito. To increase awareness, the company hired Karbo Communications as its U.S. agency of record in September 2023 for the team’s strategic expertise, proactive and creative PR methods, proven success, and ability to translate thought leadership from a C-suite to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Objectives

Elevate market awareness of Stytch as the company that enables sophisticated authentication and anti-fraud
Increase adoption of Stytch’s solution in the information security, business decision making and developer communities by driving targets to the website
Further establish Stytch’s executive team as thought leaders and industry visionaries

Execution

At the beginning of the relationship, Karbo Communications strategically developed a tailor-made six-month PR plan to position Stytch as the leading identity and access management provider, built by and for developers. With the challenge of creating effective thought leadership platforms, Karbo Communications hit the ground running and put Stytch in front of the most impactful opportunities, identifying white space in the intersection of the developer and business technology community. The team put forth proprietary angles that echoed a compelling point of view on authentication, security, fraud and risk in an AI era, as well as thought-provoking commentary on API design and use cases, AI’s impact on sophisticated phishing attempts, and organization-first application infrastructure that appealed to both technical and non-technical readers.

Working closely with Stytch’s co-founders, and marketing team,Karbo Communications identified proactive opportunities and capitalizedon opportunities the startup hadn’t been privy to, including recommendations that supported customer and investor relations. From commentary and rapid response opportunities, to broadcast and podcasts, these efforts seamlessly tied into pillar messaging and correlating announcements, secured speaking opportunities poised for developer-centric audiences, and developed first-place award submissions to support Stytch’s positioning of the leading IAM solution for scaling businesses.

Results

In under a year of partnership, Karbo successfully launched two of Stytch’s latest offerings resulting in top-tier developer-focused coverage in outlets such as SiliconANGLE and The New Stack, and reinforced 100% of key messages in organic and earned placements, resulting in a total of 48 pieces of earned coverage.

Additionally, the founders’ thought leadership platforms soared with proactive opportunities, including briefings, speaking opportunities and commentary in industry trend articles, as well as business publications such as Forbes, BNN Breaking and San Francisco Business Times.

In tandem with increasing market awareness, Karbo conducted outreach to targeted analyst firms to strengthen Stytch’s positioning amongst the crowded IAM market. The team secured briefings with IDC, Forrester, Gartner, RedMonk, Frost & Sullivan, 451 Research, Liminal, and more. The analyst briefings resulted in unbiased, positive IAM/CIAM market report inclusion that not only supported brand credibility, validation and competitive positioning – but also served as persuasive references in customer deals and media outreach.

Additionally, Karbo Communications developed unique Call for Speaker/Paper submissions leveraging proprietary insights and various talents of the Stytch team – from the CEO and CTO to software engineers and developer relationship managers – with the goal of not only reaching conference attendees, but potential buyers and industry peers. The team secured primetime slots at popular developer-focused events such as LeadDev NYC, Carolina Code Craft, and CascadiaJS. The team also crafted a winning application for the 2024 SIIA CODiE Business Technology Awards, naming Stytch as the winner for the Best Identity and Access Management Solution.

A sampling of media that have featured Stytch: