How to sell to CTOs at Developer tools companies in Canada
CTOs at developer tools companies in Canada are primarily measured on system uptime and deployment frequency. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their tech stack challenges, such as CI/CD bottlenecks or observability gaps. Highlighting how your solution can enhance their deployment processes or improve system reliability will capture their attention.
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
- ci/cd bottlenecks
- system downtime complaints
- integration complexities
- observability tool gaps
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent funding rounds
Filter for developer tools companies in Canada that have recently secured funding. Use platforms like Crunchbase or PitchBook to find announcements. Companies with new funding often look to scale their engineering efforts and may need tools to support that growth.
- 02
Pinpoint CI/CD challenges
Research the target company's tech stack and identify any common CI/CD tools they use. Use LinkedIn or their engineering blog to find mentions of pain points or challenges. Tailor your outreach to address specific issues related to their current CI/CD processes.
- 03
Highlight observability gaps
Examine the company's public-facing services and note any performance issues or downtime reported in forums or social media. Mention these observability gaps in your outreach to demonstrate awareness of their current struggles and position your solution as a remedy.
- 04
Leverage industry events
Check for upcoming tech conferences or webinars in Canada focused on developer tools. Mentioning participation in these events can create a relevant context for your outreach. CTOs often attend these events to discover new solutions and network with peers.
- 05
Address common objections upfront
Be prepared for objections related to budget constraints or integration concerns. In your outreach, acknowledge these issues and suggest a phased approach to implementation that minimizes upfront costs and eases integration with existing systems.
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
- Funding round insights
- CI/CD improvement strategies
- Observability solutions for developers
Questions
- Why do CTOs at developer tools companies ignore outreach about new tools?
- CTOs often receive numerous outreach messages and may ignore those that don’t align with their immediate needs or challenges. If the outreach lacks specificity about their technology stack or fails to address known pain points, it’s likely to be overlooked.
- What triggers a CTO to engage with a vendor?
- CTOs are more likely to engage when they see a direct correlation between the vendor's offering and their current challenges, such as improving deployment speeds or resolving downtime issues. Demonstrating a clear understanding of their specific context and needs is crucial.
- How can I find out what tools a CTO currently uses?
- You can discover the tools a CTO uses by analyzing their company’s tech stack through job postings, engineering blogs, or tech community discussions. Platforms like StackShare or GitHub repositories can also provide insights into their technology preferences.
- What are common misconceptions about selling to CTOs?
- One common misconception is that CTOs are solely focused on cost. While budget is a consideration, they prioritize solutions that align with their strategic goals and enhance operational efficiency. Understanding their broader objectives is key to effective outreach.
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