How to sell to Founders at Developer tools companies
Founders in developer tools companies are primarily measured on product adoption rates. They respond to outreach that clearly outlines how a solution can enhance developer experience or streamline deployment processes. Understanding their specific pain points, such as onboarding new developers or integrating CI/CD pipelines, can make your outreach more 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
- slow onboarding processes
- inefficient deployment cycles
- high developer turnover
- poor product adoption
The playbook
- 01
Identify companies launching new CI/CD features
Use tools like Product Hunt or GitHub to track recent launches in CI/CD tools. Focus on companies that have recently announced updates or integrations, as these founders are likely seeking solutions to improve their offerings and may be open to discussions.
- 02
Research founders' pain points in onboarding
Visit the founders' blogs or social media to uncover their recent challenges, particularly regarding onboarding new developers or improving team efficiency. Tailor your outreach by mentioning specific issues they’ve discussed, demonstrating your understanding of their immediate needs.
- 03
Craft a message addressing deployment frustrations
Compose an email that directly addresses common deployment frustrations faced by developer tool founders, such as slow release cycles or integration issues. Highlight a specific instance from your research to show that you understand their context and can offer relevant insights.
- 04
Follow up with insights on observability trends
If you don’t receive a response within a week, send a follow-up email that includes insights about the latest trends in observability and how they can impact product success. Founders appreciate data-driven discussions that can lead to actionable improvements.
- 05
Request a call to discuss scaling challenges
In your follow-up, explicitly ask for a brief call to explore how your solution can help them scale their product effectively. Be clear about the value of the conversation, focusing on how you can help alleviate their scaling challenges.
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
- Scaling your developer tools
- Enhancing CI/CD efficiency
- Insights on onboarding challenges
Questions
- Why do founders at developer tools companies ignore outreach?
- Founders often receive a high volume of outreach and may prioritize communication that directly addresses their current challenges. If your message lacks specificity or relevance to their immediate needs, it’s likely to be overlooked.
- How can I get a response from a busy founder?
- To engage a busy founder, your outreach must be concise and deliver immediate value. Highlight a specific pain point or trend relevant to their product and suggest a brief conversation to explore solutions, making it easy for them to see the benefit of responding.
- What types of content resonate with developer tool founders?
- Content that addresses current industry trends, like CI/CD advancements or developer experience improvements, tends to resonate well. Founders appreciate insights that can help them enhance their product offerings or streamline operations.
- Why is personalization important in outreach to founders?
- Personalization shows that you’ve done your homework and understand the unique challenges a founder faces. It increases the likelihood of engagement, as founders are more likely to respond to messages that reflect their specific context and needs.
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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