How to sell to CTOs at Marketplaces companies
CTOs at marketplaces are primarily measured on platform uptime and performance. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of the technical challenges their teams face, such as system scalability and integration issues. Showing that you know how to enhance their platform's 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 179 marketplaces company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- platform downtime
- scalability issues during peak
- integration with third-party vendors
- performance bottlenecks
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent platform outages
Search for news articles or press releases that mention recent downtime or performance issues at targeted marketplaces. Use Google News or industry-specific forums to uncover these incidents. This will help you understand their immediate pain points and frame your outreach accordingly.
- 02
Segment for tech stack changes
Filter your list for companies that have recently updated their technology stack, such as migrating to cloud services or adopting new APIs. Use LinkedIn or tech blogs to identify these changes. This indicates they may be open to solutions that enhance their new infrastructure.
- 03
Craft a message around scalability challenges
Draft your outreach email focusing on scalability issues that arise in two-sided marketplaces, particularly during peak usage times. Highlight how your insights or solutions can help them manage increased demand without compromising performance. This specificity shows you understand their unique challenges.
- 04
Address integration concerns directly
In follow-up communications, directly reference their existing vendor platforms and any integration challenges you identified. Offer insights or examples of how similar companies overcame these hurdles. This targeted approach demonstrates your commitment to solving their specific problems.
- 05
Propose a time-sensitive meeting
Suggest a brief call within the next week to discuss how your insights can help them avoid future outages or improve performance. Emphasize the urgency by referencing any upcoming product launches or seasonal peak periods they may be preparing for.
Can marketplaces companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 179 marketplaces 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.
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
- Addressing your platform's uptime
- Scaling your marketplace efficiently
- Overcoming integration hurdles
Questions
- Why do CTOs at marketplaces ignore outreach about performance tools?
- CTOs often receive numerous outreach messages, making it easy to overlook those that don't immediately address their specific pain points. If your message doesn’t clearly relate to their current challenges, such as platform performance or integration issues, it may not resonate, leading to silence.
- What makes a CTO at a marketplace prioritize a vendor?
- CTOs prioritize vendors that understand the unique challenges of two-sided marketplaces, particularly around scalability and system reliability. They look for partners who can provide tailored solutions that directly address their operational bottlenecks and enhance their platform's performance.
- How can I demonstrate value to a CTO at a marketplace?
- Demonstrating value involves showcasing a clear understanding of their technical challenges and providing actionable insights. Case studies, success stories from similar companies, and a focus on improving platform uptime or integration efficiency can effectively illustrate your value.
- What timing is best for reaching out to marketplace CTOs?
- The best timing typically aligns with their product development cycles or after significant industry events. Reaching out just before peak usage periods or following a known platform outage can increase responsiveness, as they are more likely to be seeking solutions during these times.
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.
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