How to sell to CTOs at Developer tools companies
CTOs at developer tools companies are measured on system uptime and deployment speed. They respond to outreach that demonstrates an understanding of their tech stack and highlights improvements in CI/CD processes. When you reference specific pain points like integration challenges or deployment delays, you catch their attention because these issues directly impact their team's productivity and product delivery timelines.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 587 developer tools company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- deployment delays
- integration challenges
- system downtime
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent CI/CD failures
Use tools like GitHub or GitLab to find repositories with recent commit activity. Look for comments or issues related to CI/CD failures. This indicates a pressing need for solutions that can enhance their deployment processes.
- 02
Research team size and structure
Check LinkedIn for the number of engineers in their team, focusing on companies with over 50 employees. A larger team often means more complexity in managing deployments, which can be a critical pain point.
- 03
Highlight observability gaps
Look for companies that have recently launched new APIs or tools but lack comprehensive observability. Mentioning how you can help them gain insights into their system performance will resonate with their need for better monitoring.
- 04
Address integration complexities
Identify companies that have recently acquired other tech firms. They may face integration challenges post-acquisition. Tailor your message to address how your solution can streamline integration and reduce friction.
- 05
Follow up after deployment events
Set reminders to follow up within a week after major product launches or updates. These events often lead to increased scrutiny on system performance, making it an ideal time to reach out with your solutions.
Can developer tools companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 587 developer tools companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 27.4% of 1–10-person companies against 94.9% of the largest — 68 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Improving your CI/CD process
- Tackling deployment issues
- Enhancing observability tools
Questions
- Why do CTOs in developer tools ignore cold outreach?
- CTOs often receive numerous outreach attempts, many of which lack relevance. If they don't see a clear connection to their current challenges or goals, they may dismiss the message. Tailoring your outreach to specific pain points and recent company events can help capture their attention.
- What challenges do CTOs face with new technology integrations?
- CTOs frequently struggle with integrating new tools into existing workflows, leading to disruptions. They need solutions that not only fit well with their current tech stack but also enhance team productivity without significant downtime.
- How can I demonstrate value to a CTO?
- To demonstrate value, focus on specific improvements your solution can provide, such as reducing deployment times or increasing system reliability. Use case studies that highlight measurable outcomes relevant to their industry to support your claims.
- What timing works best for outreach to CTOs?
- Reaching out shortly after product launches or major updates is ideal, as CTOs are often reassessing their tools and processes during these times. Additionally, following up after significant industry events can also yield better engagement.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
Try it on your site