Deciding to migrate to a new auth solution is not easy, but it can be necessary when the current one no longer meets your product’s needs. Sr. Developer Advocate for Startups, Shreya Gupta, interviewed Julius Aho, the CTO and co-founder of Evenpay, a compensation transparency software built for the EU Pay Transparency Directive. This innovative startup must manage moving fast, while also properly handling incredibly sensitive data: employee salaries.
Trust Is Essential for Evenpay
Because Evenpay handles salary data, trust is the product. Julius made the call before they had a company name: security first, always. He shared that Evenpay’s larger customers are asking:
- Where the data is located?
- If it is trustworthy?
- How the team is managing it?
“People tend to think of security as a future problem. Especially now with AI, it's super easy to prompt your first MVP and just have things working. But then what happens after that? You start to sell it to companies, and they start to input their data in — and you haven't spent any thought on security.”
– Julius Aho, Evenpay CTO and Co-Founder
Why Auth0 Was the Better Choice
Evenpay started with a popular B2B auth solution built for startups because it had a simpler UI and was faster to get going, but they soon hit a wall early on: data residency requirements from Finnish customers.
Evenpay needed EU data controls and compliance configuration that the initial auth solution could not support. Evenpay decided to switch to Auth0 because it was feature-rich, more versatile, and better suited to how startups actually evolve.
“We recognized that as a young startup, things will change — customer requirements will change. We are learning all the time. It is vital to us that we have platforms that are versatile and we're able to configure them as we learn and evolve.”
– Julius Aho, Evenpay CTO and Co-Founder
At Auth0, we know that migrating auth is not an easy decision, so we try to take some of the pressure off.
Julius and his team migrated all customers from his old provider to Auth0 in a few weeks. He attributes this to well-documented support materials and AI assistance, which made it manageable.
What It Really Means to Be Enterprise-Ready
Managed SSO used to mean weeks of back-and-forth emails with IT teams. With Auth0's self-service SSO setup, Evenpay enabled its customers to set it up themselves in as little as one day, not weeks.
The team also realized that enterprise buyers, especially in Finland, are familiar with the Auth0 name. This means that, for a relatively unknown startup (for now), being able to name your auth provider instantly builds credibility with these decision-makers. This allowed the team to skip the convincing and focus on what makes their product great.
“Just being able to say that we have Auth0 — and they say 'yeah, we know it' — is always a really important trust factor. As a company building a new product, having a well-known brand that information security officers know by name is quite a relief. We don't need to convince them about authentication at all.”
– Julius Aho, Evenpay CTO and Co-Founder
The Founders' Corner with Julius
What are some tips Julius wants to leave founders:
- Use industry-standard tools signals credibility that you cannot fake.
- Build your own auth as an unknown startup does not impress enterprise buyers, and can ultimately signal suspicion.
- In the age of AI agents allowing software to be spun up 100x faster, do not forget to take care of yourself.
“Electricity wasn't invented by making candles five percent better. Sometimes it's more important to think about what the actual revolutionary things are that you can do — not just optimize what already exists.”
– Julius Aho, Evenpay CTO and Co-Founder
If you are thinking about migrating or realize you may hit a security or compliance wall with your current provider at some point, we offer a 22-day free trial to test our enterprise features. Get started. If you want to discuss additional options or have questions about our plans, email customeradvocate@okta.com.
Startups can apply now at auth0.com/startups/vip. If they are eligible, they will receive one free year of Auth0’s B2B Professional plan.
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