For founders / Dev-tool / API founders
Get your dev tool its first users.
Developers won't click your ad or read your pitch. But right now they're asking each other what to use, on Hacker News, in dev subreddits and on Dev.to. I find the ones describing the problem you solve and bring you a short list each morning, with the first line already written, like a reply from a peer.
No account needed to see your first sample list.
So far I've found 48,212 developers for founders building tools like yours.
That number goes up every night.
I built a CLI that catches broken API calls before they hit production.
Read your docs. Found 11 developers this week asking for something like it, in their own words. Ranked by how close they are to your use case. Here are the top four.
| Fit | Who | Where | Why them | The line I'd draft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strong | a backend engineer | Hacker News | Asked in a thread what people use to catch API regressions before prod | "Saw your API-regression question. I built a CLI for exactly that. Want me to show you on your stack?" |
| Strong | a platform engineer | r/devops | Posted they are tired of flaky integration tests slipping through CI | "Your flaky-CI post is why I built my thing. Happy to walk you through how it works, no pitch." |
| Good | a solo dev | r/selfhosted | Looking for a self-hosted alternative to a paid API monitor | "Saw you want a self-hosted option. Mine runs local and is open core. Want the repo?" |
| Good | an indie hacker | Dev.to | Wrote a post about shipping fast and breaking prod | "Loved your 'shipping fast, breaking prod' post. Built something that catches it first. Mind if I show you?" |
Illustrative example. I build a fresh list from your live docs each morning. Real names and links stay in your account, never on a page.
You built the tool. Now try selling to people who block ads.
There are about 48.4 million professional developers in the world (SlashData), and more than 180 million on GitHub, where a new one joins roughly every second (GitHub Octoverse). Last year they pushed code 986 million times. Everyone is building. You built something good in that pile.
Here's the part that makes dev tools different. Your audience is the single hardest group on the internet to market to. Developers block ads, skip the pre-roll, and can smell a pitch in the first three words. They don't trust a landing page. They trust what another developer says in a thread, in the open, when nobody's selling.
So the usual moves don't work. You can't buy your way into a developer's trust, and a banner they'll never see won't fix distribution. A founder on r/SaaS asked it straight: how do you guys actually market a dev tool? The honest answer is you don't market it. You show up where developers already ask each other what to use, and you're the one with the real answer.
That is a job nobody has time for by hand. It's the whole thing myPip does for you.
Sources · GitHub Octoverse 2025 · GitHub — 986M code pushes · SlashData — developer population
Where developers actually decide what to use.
Developers don't find tools in ads. They find them in threads. They post "Ask HN: what do you use for X?" on Hacker News. They ask "what's everyone running for this?" in r/devops. They search r/selfhosted for an alternative to the paid thing. They write up what broke on Dev.to. When a developer needs a tool, they ask other developers, in public, and they trust the answer because nobody's being paid for it.
I read those places while you sleep. When an engineer describes the problem your tool solves, I bring them to you with the first line already drafted. A real answer to their question, not a promo.
Sources I'm scanning for you
- Hacker News
“Ask HN: what do you use for X?”
View community ↗ - r/devops
“what's everyone running for this?”
View community ↗ - r/selfhosted
“self-hosted alternative to [paid tool]?”
View community ↗ - r/webdev
“is there a library that does X?”
View community ↗ - Dev.to
“here's what broke in prod and how I fixed it”
View community ↗ - r/SaaS
“how do you actually market a dev tool?”
View community ↗
Developers asking right now
live on Reddit- r/SaaS
How do you guys actually market a dev tool?
Developers don't want the pitch, they want to try it and see if it works. So how do you even get in front of them?
Join the discussion on Reddit ↗ - r/GrowthHacking
I'm an engineer with zero marketing skills. Here's the exact approach I use, no ads, no budget.
The real moat isn't the free tool, it's the signal you pick up from the communities where your users already hang out.
Join the discussion on Reddit ↗ - r/StartupSoloFounder
What's your go-to strategy for getting the first 100 users?
Organic only, niche platforms, the places aligned with the people you built for. No budget to spend.
Join the discussion on Reddit ↗ - Hacker News
Fired by Google for creating the Google Workspace CLI
Built a genuinely useful tool, and search no longer even surfaces it. Discovery is the hard part now, not building.
Join the discussion on Reddit ↗
Pulled live from Reddit, refreshed through the day. Click any to reply where the founder is already asking.
How myPip works for dev-tool founders.
Finds developers asking for a tool like yours.
Not an ad they'll block. Real Hacker News threads, dev subreddits and Dev.to, where engineers ask each other what to use.
Writes the first line like a developer, not a marketer.
Developers spot a pitch instantly. Every message points at the exact thing they posted, so it reads like a useful reply from someone who gets the problem.
Ranks each person against who your tool is actually for.
Paste your docs or landing page. I learn the use case and bring you the engineers closest to it first, so your five minutes go to real fits.
A habit, not a launch.
You can't buy your way into a developer's trust, and a launch spike dies in a day. A short list every morning of people already asking, and you help one of them.
A habit, not a campaign.
Paste your tool
myPip reads your docs and works out which developers it's for.
It finds them overnight
Hacker News, dev subreddits and Dev.to, while you sleep.
You send, five minutes a day
Each message drafted in your voice. You hit send yourself. That is how you learn what lands.
Questions dev-tool founders ask
Developers hate being marketed to. Won't this just annoy them?
That's exactly why it works. myPip never sends a pitch. It points you at developers actively asking what to use, where a genuine, technical reply is welcome. You're helping a peer, not running an ad they'll block.
Isn't Hacker News brutal about self-promotion?
To promotion, yes. Not to someone who answers the exact question with something that actually works. myPip finds the Ask HN post or thread where your tool is the honest answer, so you show up useful, not spammy.
I'm a developer, not a marketer. Do I have to learn growth stuff?
No. You don't write copy or learn a CRM. You open a short list of engineers asking for what you built and reply in your own words, the way you would to a colleague.
How is this different from a developer ad network?
Ad networks pay to put a banner in front of people who block banners. myPip hands you a few engineers who just asked for your kind of tool, with a line that fits what they said. No spend, nothing to block.
My tool is open source or free. Is this still worth it?
Yes. Stars and adoption come from the right developers finding you at the right moment. myPip puts you in the threads where they're already looking for what you made.
Get your dev tool its first users.
You did the hard part. You built something developers would actually use. Five minutes a day finds the ones already asking for it.
Request accessSee a sample list first, no account needed.