How to sell to Product leads at Developer tools companies
Product leads in developer tools prioritize reducing time-to-market for new features. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their CI/CD processes and how your solution can help streamline their workflows. Highlighting specific improvements in deployment frequency or error reduction will capture their attention and encourage a response.
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 feature delivery
- integration complexities
- insufficient observability
- deployment failures
The playbook
- 01
Identify teams struggling with deployment
Search for developer teams that have recently reported delays in their CI/CD pipeline. Use platforms like GitHub or developer forums to find discussions about deployment issues. Target companies with recent product launches that received mixed reviews due to bugs or slow delivery.
- 02
Highlight observability gaps
Research product leads discussing the need for better observability tools in their tech stack. Look for mentions in industry blogs or social media where they express frustration with current monitoring solutions. Tailor your outreach to address these specific gaps and how your approach can enhance visibility.
- 03
Address API platform integration challenges
Focus on companies that have recently expanded their API offerings but are facing integration difficulties. Use LinkedIn to find posts or articles where product leads mention integration pain points. Frame your message around simplifying API management and improving developer experience.
- 04
Leverage industry events for timing
Identify upcoming industry conferences or webinars where product leads will be present. Send outreach emails a week prior to these events, offering insights or a meeting to discuss challenges they may face. This timing can increase the likelihood of a response due to their heightened engagement.
- 05
Follow up on recent product feedback
After sending your initial outreach, monitor for any public feedback on recent product releases from the target company. If they receive criticism, follow up by offering a conversation about how your solution can help address those specific concerns, positioning yourself as a proactive partner.
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 CI/CD pipeline
- Streamline your API integrations
- Enhance observability for better performance
Questions
- Why do product leads in developer tools ignore cold outreach?
- Product leads often receive numerous outreach messages that do not address their specific challenges. If the outreach fails to demonstrate a clear understanding of their CI/CD processes or doesn't provide a compelling reason for engagement, they are likely to overlook it.
- What common challenges do product leads face?
- Product leads commonly struggle with slow feature delivery, integration complexities, and insufficient observability of their systems. These challenges can lead to frustration within development teams and impact the overall product quality, making them critical areas for discussion.
- How can I make my outreach stand out to product leads?
- To stand out, tailor your outreach to address specific pain points such as deployment failures or integration challenges. Use data or examples relevant to their industry and demonstrate how your solution can directly impact their development timelines and product quality.
- What role do industry events play in outreach effectiveness?
- Industry events provide a unique opportunity for product leads to engage with new solutions and technologies. Timing your outreach around these events can lead to higher engagement, as leads are often more open to discussions about improvements and innovations during these periods.
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