Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39217728

Points: 25

# Comments: 0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36071721

Points: 17

# Comments: 0

Here's what we did:

- select the 3 top alternative tools

- look at databases of tech stacks (https://stackshare.io/ is one), the company websites where any logos were mentioned, anywhere we could get an info that this company was using one of the alternative tools

- then did 4. 5. 6. 7. in the steps mentioned in this article

- https://airbyte.com/blog/how-to-create-awareness-with-no-tim...

- in the messaging, saying that you are building an open-source version of that alternative tool they're using helps a ton if you're reaching out to a technical audience. also, don't forget to personalize the message you're sending with the tool they're using name, company, etc. so it doesn't seem too automated, but more authentic.

One other thing that helped in our case was that we built a previous product before and asked to be introduced to their data team, but most of the interviews were scheduled by the methodology above.

Hope that helps!

Having more usage on our side will help us tremendously at bringing all those connectors to higher reliability standards as we're exposed to more and more use cases. We do believe most people will be willing to pay for reliability and will stay with us when those connectors will become GA. We will also give a grace period for them to switch if they want to (I guess Airbyte Open Source will be the best alternative then :) )

Open source makes it the solution future-proof, in the sense that it will address your future long-tail or custom needs, while a closed-source solution won't which will require you to build/maintain connectors in-house again.