How to sell to CTOs at Developer tools companies in United States
CTOs at developer tools companies prioritize system reliability and innovation velocity. They are primarily measured on uptime percentages and deployment frequency. Engaging them requires demonstrating a clear understanding of their tech stack and the specific challenges they face in scaling their infrastructure or improving CI/CD processes.
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
- frequent deployment failures
- high system downtime
- slow release cycles
- lack of observability
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent funding rounds
Filter for companies in developer tools that have secured funding in the last 6 months. This indicates they may be expanding their engineering teams and looking for new tools to enhance productivity and reliability.
- 02
Research their tech stack
Utilize tools like BuiltWith or StackShare to analyze the technologies currently in use by your target companies. Understanding their existing CI/CD and observability tools will allow you to tailor your outreach effectively.
- 03
Craft a message around scaling challenges
Address common scaling challenges like deployment failures or downtime in your email. Highlight how your solution can enhance their CI/CD pipeline or improve observability, making it relevant to their immediate pain points.
- 04
Follow up after product launches
Set reminders to follow up with CTOs after they launch a new product. This is often a stressful time, and they may be more receptive to solutions that promise to ease their operational burdens.
- 05
Ask for a demo after initial contact
Once you’ve established a connection, propose a demo to showcase how your solution integrates with their existing systems. Be specific about how it can reduce downtime or improve deployment speed, which are critical metrics for a CTO.
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 deployment success
- Solutions for CI/CD challenges
- Enhancing system reliability
Questions
- Why do CTOs in developer tools ignore cold outreach?
- CTOs often receive numerous cold outreach attempts that fail to address their specific challenges. If the message doesn't resonate with their current priorities, like improving CI/CD processes or system reliability, it’s likely to be overlooked.
- What metrics do CTOs focus on when evaluating new tools?
- CTOs typically focus on metrics like uptime, deployment frequency, and the overall impact on team productivity. They need to see how a new tool can directly improve these metrics to justify its adoption.
- How can I make my outreach stand out to a CTO?
- To stand out, tailor your message to address specific pain points relevant to their tech stack and current challenges. Providing insights or data on how your solution has helped similar companies can also capture their attention.
- What common objections do CTOs have regarding new tools?
- Common objections include concerns about integration with existing systems, the potential for downtime during implementation, and whether the new tool will genuinely improve team efficiency. Addressing these upfront can help mitigate their hesitations.
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