Stirista: The First Company Built from the Ground Up to Deliver Real-Time Identity Solutions

Stirista: An Industry Leader in Data and Marketing Solutions

Founded as an ambitious project from an apartment in 2009, San Antonio, Texas–based Stirista is an industry leader in data-driven SaaS and identity marketing solutions.

Stirista helps marketers generate revenue using identity-level data. Data plays a key role in driving sales, and Stirista provides access to best-fit accounts from more than 26 million businesses. The company creates custom audience segments and executes campaigns across digital, email, and social channels.

Stirista understands that one-size-fits-all solutions and decayed data don’t work. That’s why the company built a modular, real-time OMNA Identity Graph from the ground up—giving marketers data that actually delivers results.

We recently interviewed Ajay Gupta, CEO of Stirista, to learn more about the company’s journey and its identity marketing solutions. Below are excerpts from the interview.

Interview With Ajay Gupta, CEO of Stirista

Could You Tell Us About Your Journey So Far?

Stirista started in my apartment in 2009 with just two people. The goal was to offer complete data profiles that updated in real time and could be used across all media channels. This helped eliminate ad waste and improve results.

Today, the company has grown to around 100 employees. We recently launched a media buying platform called AdStir. It allows marketers to buy media at cost across major CTV platforms with full reporting.

AdStir is first of its kind and includes its own DSP. It matches input and output data and supports identity marketing.

What Is Identity Marketing?

Stirista delivers micro-targeted, multichannel marketing solutions powered by intelligent data.

Identity marketing recognizes a specific customer or business wherever and however they interact. The OMNA Identity Graph provides real-time identity data that updates within seconds. This allows marketers to reach audiences faster, achieve better results, and gain more accurate attribution.

How Can Stirista Help With Acquiring and Retaining Customers?

Stirista focuses on success and customer service. Our data helps marketers reach prospects who are ready to purchase, lowering the funnel and saving time and money.

We enable marketers to nurture prospects and reach them with the right offer at the right moment. The data companies collect over time is more than fuel for campaigns—it’s untapped revenue.

Data that may seem unremarkable can generate significant value in data marketplaces. Our team of data strategists understands buyer needs and helps identify top buyers while bringing existing data assets to market.

What Makes Stirista Unique?

Stirista stands out because of its product offerings.

AdStir is a self-service media buying platform that provides access to premium inventory across CTV, OTT, and mobile. Stirista has also launched the OMNA Identity Graph, which enables marketers to reach over 100 million households.

While many marketers already have snapshots of customer identities, our strategists help transform that data into a complete identity graph. From improving match rates to injecting data into decision-making, our team enhances data methodologies across connected devices to ensure messages reach the right audiences.

Could You Tell Us About Stirista’s Work Culture?

Employees are the foundation of Stirista’s growth.

Senior leadership develops playbooks to ensure a consistent and positive client experience. These playbooks also cover topics beyond daily responsibilities, such as communication styles, conflict management, and professional accountability.

We also host culture events that encourage collaboration across departments. From team building to training and planning, Stirista offers more than just a job.

How Important Are Partnerships to Stirista?

Partnerships allow Stirista to deliver best-in-class, end-to-end solutions across all digital channels.

By working with like-minded partners, we create holistic offerings for clients. Our first- and second-party data and identity insights also help partners enhance their own solutions.

How Did Stirista Adapt During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

We not only retained employees during the pandemic, but we also expanded hiring for remote roles on both the east and west coasts.

Stirista grew by over 30% while helping employees adapt to remote work. We launched the Marketing Stir podcast to replace conferences and summits and were among the first companies to transition fully to virtual meetings.

Have You Launched Any New SaaS or Marketing Solutions?

We recently launched Crosswalk, our geo-attribution platform.

Our OMNA Identity Graph attributes in-store traffic and purchases back to digital campaigns. It uses billions of signals, including date, time, location data, and device-level information such as IP and IFA.

With Crosswalk, marketers gain post-campaign foot traffic insights, competitive conquesting capabilities, and audience expansion—reducing guesswork in marketing attribution.

What Does the Future Hold for Stirista and Its Customers?

Our B2B self-service platform, Demand Exchange, enables customers to onboard and enrich CRM data, build addressable audiences, and activate campaigns across B2B display, CTV, and email.

Customers can create, scale, and manage campaigns using real-time data—empowering them to drive better performance independently.

About Ajay Gupta, CEO of Stirista

Ajay Gupta founded Stirista in 2009 at the age of 26 and has served as CEO since its inception. He has led the company’s rapid growth from a two-person startup to a global organization with nearly 100 employees across three continents.

In 2020, Stirista raised $13 million in growth equity financing from Boston-based Wavecrest Growth Partners.

Our Mission at Stirista

At Stirista, identity is our identity.

Our mission is simple: help marketers generate revenue using identity-level data that works. As marketers ourselves, we understand that outdated and generic data solutions fail. That’s why we built the real-time, modular OMNA Identity Graph—to deliver marketing data you can rely on.