Synadia is a company renowned for enabling distributed applications in the era of edge computing, IoT, and AI. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Synadia’s VP of Marketing, Justyna Bak, to learn more.
Joining The Company
What attracted you to Synadia? Bak said:
“I joined Synadia―the company behind NATS.io open source project, the most elegant tech stack for building distributed applications within edge computing, loT, and AI, because I believe in the people and the timing for our technology. Ever charged or ridden in an EV, used your credit card loyalty points, or shopped online? If so, you’re likely within the millions of users interacting with our lightweight-but-mighty software.”
“We’ve seen explosive growth of apps for self-driving cars, edge computing, and gen AI apps. Applications have become more distributed and sophisticated in finance, retail, and healthcare. My love for innovation motivated me to become one of the first passengers in a self-driving car. That same love for innovation drives significant demand for Synadia’s offerings, and brought me here. Joining the Stanford Innovative Technology Leader program last year grew my obsession with innovation and my knowledge of how to create the perfect conditions to innovate. Those same conditions exist here at Synadia where everyone’s an innovator, which I very much enjoy.”
Justyna Bak’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Bak shared:
“I have worked at five global tech firms, including three Fortune 100 companies: Google, Cisco, and Nokia. I describe myself as a full-stack marketer who can distill tech value without diluting it. I came to marketing technology from engineering, which remains a big part of who I am.”
Responsibilities At The Company
What’s the through line in all you do? Bak pointed out:
“Curiosity and love of technology, problem-solving, and challenging―rather than settling for―any suboptimal status quo. Looking dreamily into the far future, building prototypes to solve what problems might exist, and seeing how predictions turn out. I enjoy demystifying technology so audiences ‘get it’ and employ analogies so users can visualize the value. If everyone is smiling as you demonstrate or present new technology, the analogy is working. The five languages I speak help me to connect with audiences far beyond the U.S. For example, I can explain how Google Translate works to Danish and Italian audiences using idiomatic expressions.”
Marketing Opportunity For Synadia
What is the marketing opportunity for Synadia—and why should clients and stakeholders take notice now? Bak noted:
“Pay attention to Synadia, our strong customer momentum with our products, and the many problems we help them solve. We are the company to watch in edge computing, IoT, and AI.”
“We aim to create excitement around what we’re doing by humanizing our technology through emotional connections―showing our audience what it is and what it makes possible. Also, we are focusing on humanizing the people behind [NATS.io](http://nats.io/) and the Synadia Platform. We prioritize compelling stories with strong messaging, conviction, passion, and our superb problem solving now—and in the future. We show vs. tell where the industry is heading.”
Challenges Faced
What’s the #1 challenge in building distributed applications, and how does Synadia address it? Bak acknowledged:
“As monolithic applications transition to microservices and move to the edge, developers must ensure that app components can communicate with one another. They often need to introduce additional solutions like API gateways, service meshes, and key-value stores. This adds operational overhead, consuming 80% of developers’ time and energy, leaving only 20% for building app logic and driving innovation. At Synadia, we are flipping this ratio.”
Edge Computing
How would you define edge computing? Bak emphasized:
“Edge is the next phase in evolving how we build applications. Monolithic apps became cloud-native apps and microservices. Now, we must move apps to the edge, closer to users, so that they better experience real-time apps. Everything is becoming more distributed, with billions of mobile phones, tablets and laptops connecting to the network. With 65-millisecond internet delivery latencies and self-driving cars requiring less than 10 milliseconds, many applications become impractical. Edge computing corrects that by helping a manufacturer of electric vehicles, for example, to ensure that their self-driving cars get from point A to B safely, efficiently, and consistently.”
“Synadia’s [NATS.io](http://nats.io/) becomes the nervous system ensuring all application components stay connected and function as they should and that all devices at the edge stay connected with one another.”
— We’re lightweight (all application services fit in a tiny 20MB binary).
— We’re versatile (you can build any type of modern application, from globally distributed systems –like banking– to mission-critical edge AI apps– like self-driving cars).
— And we’re timeless, because we are built to adapt to evolving technology.
Customer Stories
What standout customer stories have already wowed you? Bak pointed out:
“Synadia is the trusted partner of both innovative startups (in AI, Clean Energy, and Gaming) and global Fortune 500 companies in Finance, Retail, Automotive, and Manufacturing.”
“Personal.ai, a California-based company building personal AI models to capture and organize individual memories, chose Synadia as their central platform to manage real-time, low-latency data streams at scale—because AI runs on data. Their choice validates that our technology empowers developers to innovate at scale.”
“Synadia Platform has also become a critical component of FinecoBank, a leading Italian bank specializing in online brokerage (and one that Forbes ranks as Italy’s best.) For the last 20+ years, the bank used a messaging infrastructure to manage the order flow among the different processes within its trading platform. The bank replaced this critical system with the Synadia platform and modernized its operations to better serve its customers because our solution was superior, and they see us as future-proof.”
“I love these customer hero stories. Our technology helps innovators innovate faster and at the edge, where conditions are harshest because you may not have enough compute. Connectivity may be intermittent and latency unpredictable. To thrive at the edge, application developers must innovate with a strong tech (and thought) partner like Synadia. Customers often ask us to review their architectures, and Derek Collison, our CEO, jumps on support calls alongside Byron Ruth, our VP of Engineering. We make it easy for customers to innovate and we evangelize what they should build so others can learn from it. This positivity around innovation validated my wise choice with Synadia. We’re on an upward trajectory.”
Building High-Performing Marketing Teams
How do you build upon this curious, experimental, and bold outlook while building a high-performing marketing team? What do you look for and keep in mind? Bak cited:
“In building a high-performing marketing team for our startup, Bozoma St John’s analogy inspires me with her team-building approach. The American marketing executive, powerhouse, and Netflix’s former CMO views her team “as an ecosystem where every element—whether a sun, moon, river, rock, or cloud—plays a crucial role.” I agree. A leader must assemble and balance this ecosystem, so elements complement each other, and talents get used to their full ability. Only then do we find harmony and give everyone a chance to shine in their unique way.”
“Equally important is my belief that ‘code is content.’ This drives a unique approach to marketing, where technical expertise is central. You’ll find more engineers and developers on my team than in a typical marketing organization, working with creatives and writers to craft campaigns that are both exciting and deeply rooted in technology. Together, this balance redefines what a marketing team can achieve.”
Building A Dynamic Ecosystem
How do you ensure marketing, sales, and product development collaborate well–and continue to build out this ‘dynamic ecosystem?’ Bak explained:
“Collaborating well and shining within this dynamic ecosystem starts with the CEO and Chief Marketing Officer (or the highest marketing person) partnering well. I feel fully supported here at Synadia and that Derek trusts my vision. And yet few company leaders partner this closely with marketing because I think few understand what’s possible.”
“A McKinsey article reminded me that CEOs who deeply integrate marketing into growth strategies are twice as likely to see annual growth over 5%―but only 40% of Fortune 500s have a CMO within their C-suite. 90% of CEOs think they understand the benefits of marketing, while only 50% of CMOs believe they’re on the same page as their CEOs regarding marketing priorities, so correcting that synergy becomes key.”
“Marketing must then do its best work to articulate the product value, build an emotional connection to the brand and engage customers across all platforms.”
“To collaborate well with sales and product development, marketing must operate like a tech startup: oversee all stages of the customer journey and work closely with product developers and sales to ensure we are offering maximum value from the product and shaping the roadmap with customer feedback.”
Marketing Goals
Can you share your biggest marketing goals over the next few years for Synadia? Bak said:
“So many. But high-level, we plan to:
- Uncover all the unexpected use cases of [NATS.io](http://nats.io/) and identify the heroes.
- Demonstrate our company values around innovation and experimentation.
- Help recognize, elevate, and celebrate the achievements of our community members, customers and open-source project users and contributors. We aim to inspire others with these trailblazers and pioneers and share this inspiration throughout the industry.”
Advice For Aspiring Marketers
Any parting advice for aspiring marketers in the communications and data space? Bak concluded:
“Be curious. Innovate. Keep up with changing technology. Know: with gen AI, the marketer’s job becomes deceptively difficult; the bar for quality content has risen. AI cannot write those personal customer stories of unexpected users of technology or their triumphs. You can though. Learn from great writers. Improve your own writing. Apply your own experiments. The magic will happen.”
