Developer tool investors are a different breed: most partners at these funds have shipped code themselves, which means your pitch needs to pass a technical smell test before the business conversation even starts. They'll probe your architecture decisions, ask why you chose certain abstractions, and want to understand your developer experience philosophy. The good news is they can also recognize genuine technical insight faster than generalist VCs. The bad news is they've seen hundreds of "GitHub for X" pitches and can spot shallow thinking immediately. Come prepared to discuss your distribution strategy in detail—these investors know that developer adoption is notoriously bottoms-up and slow to monetize, so they'll want evidence you understand the long path from free users to enterprise contracts.
One dynamic worth understanding: the dev tools space has a tight network of angel investors who are themselves successful developer tool founders (think Replit, Vercel, Supabase alumni). Getting one of these angels on your cap table often unlocks warm intros to the institutional funds on this list, since many VCs explicitly co-invest alongside technical angels they trust. Also know that traction benchmarks here look different than in consumer or traditional SaaS—investors care more about GitHub stars, community engagement, and organic word-of-mouth than polished marketing funnels. If developers are already talking about your tool on Hacker News or Twitter without you prompting them, lead with that. It's the strongest signal this category has.
