How To Start A Dev Tools Company

Dessaigne defines developer tools broadly, from IDEs and APIs to frameworks and infrastructure. He says runtime tools can be especially compelling because customers depend on them and usage can grow with their own businesses. For open source libraries and frameworks, monetization can be difficult, so hosting is one option. With crowded areas such as LLM observability, founders should be ready to differentiate or change direction.

Dessaigne recommends starting with two activities: building and talking with users. Make a quick prototype, expect to discard much of the code, and share it before it feels finished. Aim to be much better at one small job for a specific customer; Algolia began as a minimal autocomplete and secured a $2,000 monthly contract after a simple command-line demo. Avoid hiring before you know the product provides value.

Founders should reach out to developers directly, starting with colleagues and friends of friends, and personalize their messages. Dessaigne recommends Show HN for launching, explaining what is new plainly, and responding thoughtfully to comments. Segment and Ollama used repeated Hacker News launches to gauge interest and build momentum. Helping customers implement a product, as Stripe did early on, can speed up learning.

Dessaigne says open source is often expected for libraries and frameworks and can build awareness, differentiation, and enterprise trust. Possible revenue models include hosted cloud services and open-core enterprise features such as SSO and audit logs; he cautions against relying on support contracts. Non-open-source tools often charge by usage or offer tiers for individual developers, teams, and enterprises. Founders should lead sales themselves and, as a rule of thumb, wait until about $1 million ARR to hire a first salesperson.

Build awareness by being helpful in developer communities and launching regularly. Treat documentation as part of the product, and have engineers contribute to it and provide support so they learn directly from customer problems. Dessaigne recommends founders lead marketing and use the engineering team before hiring dedicated developer advocates, which he says often makes sense around Series A or later.