How to sell to CTOs at Developer tools companies in Australia
CTOs in developer tools companies in Australia are primarily measured on system uptime and deployment frequency. They respond to outreach when it addresses their specific pain points, such as reducing downtime during CI/CD processes or improving observability in their applications. Demonstrating an understanding of their tech stack and recent deployments can make your outreach more relevant and compelling.
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
- system downtime during deployments
- visibility gaps in application performance
- slow feedback loops in CI/CD
- integration issues with existing tools
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent outages or downtimes
Search for news articles or social media posts about outages faced by developer tools companies in Australia. This can be a trigger event to reach out, as CTOs are often looking for solutions to prevent future incidents. Use tools like Google News or LinkedIn to find relevant updates.
- 02
Filter for teams implementing new CI/CD tools
Look for companies that have recently announced the adoption of new CI/CD tools or practices. This indicates they may be looking to optimize their processes. Platforms like GitHub or tech blogs can provide insights into recent tool changes.
- 03
Craft your message around observability challenges
Focus your outreach on how your solution can enhance observability and reduce blind spots in their deployment pipelines. Mention specific observability tools they currently use and how your offering integrates or enhances those tools.
- 04
Follow up after product launches or updates
If a company has just launched a new product or feature, follow up within a week to discuss how your solution can support their ongoing development efforts. Timing your outreach this way shows you’re attentive to their progress and ready to assist.
- 05
Address concerns about integration complexity
When engaging, be prepared to address the common objection regarding the complexity of integrating new tools into their existing stack. Provide clear examples of how your solution has been successfully integrated in similar environments to ease their concerns.
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 pipeline
- Addressing downtime challenges
- Enhancing observability in your tools
Questions
- Why do CTOs at developer tools companies avoid cold outreach?
- CTOs often receive numerous cold emails that lack context or relevance to their specific challenges. They prioritize outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their tech stack and current issues, particularly around deployment and system performance.
- What common objections do CTOs have regarding new tools?
- CTOs frequently express concerns about integration complexity and potential disruptions to their existing workflows. They need assurance that new tools will not introduce significant overhead or require extensive retraining for their teams.
- How can I make my outreach stand out to a CTO?
- To stand out, tailor your message to address their specific pain points, such as improving CI/CD efficiency or enhancing observability. Use relevant industry examples and be concise in presenting how your solution aligns with their goals.
- What triggers a CTO to engage with a vendor?
- CTOs are more likely to engage when outreach is timely, such as following a product launch or during a known pain point, like a recent system outage. Demonstrating an understanding of their current focus areas can also prompt a response.
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