How Stytch outgrew email and launched a changelog developers actually read
Stytch builds passwordless authentication infrastructure for developers, with an API-first platform for adding secure, frictionless login to any app.
Five years later, still the channel developers read
Stytch gives developers an API-first way to add passwordless authentication to their apps. Since launching its LaunchNotes page alongside a $30M Series A in July 2021, it has raised a $90M Series B at a $1B valuation and, in October 2025, been acquired by Twilio.
Through all of it, Stytch has published its product updates on LaunchNotes. As Stytch joins Twilio, its changelog is being folded into a broader documentation redesign, and LaunchNotes remains the platform behind it.
Before: launching out of stealth with no way to reach users
By July 2021, Stytch had a product, a fresh Series A and a list of early adopters' email addresses, but no established way to reach them.
We had no other way of communicating with users.
Spyri Karasavva, Head of Growth, Stytch
The product would keep changing fast, so a one-time launch announcement wouldn't cut it. Stytch needed one place to share updates continuously and show early adopters the team was listening and shipping. The team briefly tried an email tool, but its needs quickly outgrew it:
- Web, email and Slack delivery, with subscribers choosing their channels
- Category subscriptions, so developers follow only the product areas they care about
- Marketing-grade design that matched the rest of stytch.com
- No engineering or design time pulled from Stytch's own team
- Fast setup and unlimited subscribers, with no penalty for growing
The solution: a launch page live in two weeks
LaunchNotes was the only option that checked every box. Stytch's leadership also liked the room to grow into Roadmaps and Feedback later, and called the evaluation and onboarding one of the best they'd experienced.
We were up and running within two weeks.
Spyri Karasavva, Head of Growth, Stytch
LaunchNotes built a page to match the design and layout of stytch.com, so moving from the site to the changelog felt like one continuous experience, not a handoff to another tool.
The results: a 91% open rate on day one
Stytch used the page to launch out of stealth into general availability.
We saw a 91% open rate on our first launch. And that was just week one.
Spyri Karasavva, Head of Growth, Stytch
The developer base grew fast in the months that followed, from roughly 350 developers in July 2021 to about 4,000 by November, on the strength of a hot category, a well-funded launch and a product developers wanted. LaunchNotes was the channel Stytch used to reach that audience the whole way.
From stealth to Twilio, one changelog
Stytch's rise was fast and very public. Through every stage, from launch to a $1B valuation to Twilio, LaunchNotes was where Stytch showed developers, its core users and buyers, what it was shipping. Each update amplified the company's message and made its momentum visible to the people deciding whether to build on it.
Today more than 69,000 developers subscribe to Stytch's changelog. Chris O'Neill, Head of Developer Relations, still publishes on a regular cadence, keeping them part of the conversation as Stytch grows inside Twilio.
LaunchNotes is critical to our feedback loop. It keeps an ongoing conversation going with developers about everything we ship.
Chris O'Neill, Head of Developer Relations, Stytch
