How to sell to Founders at Developer tools companies in Australia
Founders in developer tools companies in Australia prioritize innovation velocity, measured by the speed of feature releases. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their CI/CD challenges, particularly how to streamline deployment processes and improve observability in their APIs. Tailoring your message to highlight specific pain points 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
- slow deployment cycles
- inadequate observability
- debugging bottlenecks
The playbook
- 01
Identify teams with recent funding
Filter for developer tools companies in Australia that have received funding in the last 6 months. These companies are likely looking to scale quickly and may be more open to solutions that enhance their CI/CD processes.
- 02
Analyze their current CI/CD tools
Research the CI/CD tools currently used by your target companies. Use resources like GitHub or company tech stacks listed on their websites. Mentioning specific tools in your outreach can demonstrate your understanding of their environment.
- 03
Highlight observability improvements
Craft your message to address common observability issues faced by developers, such as debugging delays or lack of insights. Founders are keen on solutions that can provide real-time data and enhance their development cycles.
- 04
Leverage recent industry events
Reference any recent developer conferences or webinars in your outreach. Mentioning discussions or trends from these events shows you are engaged with their community and understand the current challenges they face.
- 05
Suggest a brief demo after a positive response
If you receive a positive reply, propose a 20-minute demo focused on how your solution enhances their existing tools. Founders appreciate concise, value-driven conversations that respect their time.
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
- Streamline your CI/CD process
- Enhance API observability now
- Boost deployment speed today
Questions
- Why do founders at developer tools companies ignore cold outreach?
- Founders often receive high volumes of outreach that fail to address their specific challenges. If your message does not clearly relate to their pain points, such as CI/CD inefficiencies or observability issues, it risks being overlooked.
- What messaging resonates with tech founders?
- Tech founders respond best to messaging that is data-driven and specific to their industry. Highlighting solutions that can directly impact their development velocity or operational efficiency tends to capture their interest.
- How can I demonstrate value to a founder quickly?
- To demonstrate value quickly, focus on concise, impactful messaging that outlines specific benefits. Use case studies or examples relevant to their market to illustrate potential improvements in CI/CD or observability.
- What are common objections from founders regarding new tools?
- Common objections include concerns about integration complexity, the learning curve for their teams, and budget constraints. Addressing these objections proactively in your outreach can help in building trust and rapport.
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