Building DevSignal: AI signal-based outreach for solo devtool founders. 30-day public sprint.

#buildinpublic #saas #devtools #startup

Hey dev.to 👋

I'm a solo SaaS founder. In the past 6 months I shipped 4 packages on NPM — and like everyone here, the hardest part wasn't building. It was getting anyone to care.

So I'm starting a 30-day public build of DevSignal — a tool that turns GitHub stars, HN comments, Reddit threads, and Twitter mentions into warm leads + AI-drafted outreach. Built for solo founders, by a solo founder.

Wait list: https://devsignal.dev

Why I'm building it

Three things I keep hitting:

Cold email blasts feel sleazy AND don't work anymore. Open rates collapsed. Reply rates near zero.
Apollo, Clay, Common Room are built for sales teams. Clay starts at $185/mo. Common Room at $1,000+. I'm one person.
The people who'd actually pay for my tool already exist. They starred my competitor's repo. They complained on Reddit about the exact problem I solve. They hang out on HN. I just can't see them.

DevSignal is the tool I wish I had when I shipped.

What it does (planned MVP)

Connect — your repo, competitor repos, HN/Reddit/Twitter handles. 5 min.
We surface warm signal — devs who starred you, devs complaining about a pain you solve, devs commenting on competitor threads. With context.
You send 1-tap outreach — AI drafts a context-aware first message. You approve. We track replies.

No data brokers. No cold lists. No spam blasts. Signal-first.

The 30-day plan

Week 1 — Landing + 30 interview prospects + first conversations
Week 2 — 10–15 founder interviews. Refine value prop based on their words.
Week 3 — MVP scope. Start building. Lock in 5 beta users.
Week 4 — Ship MVP. Convert 3 paid pilots ($49 each).

Day 30 gate: 50 wait list / 10 interviews / 5 betas / 3 paid → continue. Below that → pivot.

Stack (cheap & boring)

Tally for forms
Carrd for landing
Supabase + Clerk for auth/DB
Vercel + Next.js for backend
Claude API for messaging
Resend for email send
Stripe for payments

Total infra: ~$50–200/mo at start. Scales.

What I'd love from this community 🙏

1. If you've been a solo devtool founder and struggled with finding your first users — would love a 30-min interview. I'll trade early access + lifetime 50% off for your time. Reply or DM.

2. Honest critique. What kills this idea? What did Common Room/Clay actually solve well that I'm missing? Tell me the unflattering truth.

3. Wait list: https://devsignal.dev — if you'd want this when it ships, drop your email. You'll get 14-day free trial + 50% off first 3 months.

Why I think this works (or doesn't)

✅ I've felt the pain personally. Currently dogfooding Phase 0.
✅ Sub-niche is sharp: solo, devtool, signal-based (not list-based), $49–199/mo.
✅ Competition (Common Room, Clay, Apollo) is real but sized for teams. Solo gap looks underserved.

❌ "Yet another outreach tool." You should be skeptical.
❌ NuReply, Coldreach.ai, PlusVibe exist at solo prices. Differentiation has to be sharp.
❌ Solo founders are notoriously hard to acquire as customers.

If this fails, I'll write a post-mortem here too. Either way, you'll see the journey.

Let's go 🛠️

Wait list → devsignal.dev