Get started

Your first customer for a testing tool will not come from a launch. It will come from one engineering team with a flaky test suite or a slow release process who talks to you this week. This plan gets you from zero to a paid pilot in seven days using free channels and direct conversations.

All guidesFor founders of a testing tool

1. Day 1: Pick one painful situation

Choose a single problem your tool fixes, like flaky Playwright tests in CI, slow end-to-end suites, or no tests at all on a Rails app. Write one sentence: 'For teams whose CI fails randomly on E2E tests, we find and quarantine flaky tests automatically.' Everything this week targets people living that exact problem.

2. Day 2: Find people complaining right now

Search GitHub issues for 'flaky test' in repos using your stack, and search r/QualityAssurance, r/softwaretesting, r/devops and the Ministry of Testing Club forum. On X and LinkedIn, search 'flaky tests' or 'our CI is so slow'. Save 30 names with the exact thing they said and where.

3. Day 3: List decision makers at small teams

Target QA Leads, SDETs, Heads of Engineering and CTOs at startups with 10 to 80 engineers. Check Y Combinator's company directory and job boards for openings that mention 'Cypress', 'Playwright' or 'test automation'. A company hiring an SDET has testing pain and budget.

4. Day 4: Send 25 short, specific messages

Reference what they wrote or posted, not your product. Example: 'Saw your comment about Cypress tests failing randomly in GitHub Actions. I built a tool that flags flaky tests per run. Could I run it on one of your repos for free this week and show you what it finds?' Send by LinkedIn, email or a reply in the thread, never a pitch deck.

5. Day 5: Run calls and live trials

On each call, ask how many tests they have, how often CI fails, and what a failed release costs them in hours. Then run your tool on their real suite while they watch, or within 24 hours. Show a concrete result like 'these 6 tests caused most of your reruns last month'.

6. Day 6: Ask for money

Offer a paid pilot with a clear price and a short term. Example: 'Keep it running on your main repo for 30 days for $200. If it does not cut your reruns, I refund it.' Send a payment link from Stripe the same day, not a contract.

7. Day 7: Follow up and learn

Follow up once with everyone who did not reply, adding one new detail like a fix you shipped. Write down every objection you heard, such as security reviews or CI integration effort, and fix the most common one first. Hulby, an AI cofounder, can run this finding, messaging and follow-up loop for you every day.

People asking this right now

Real, public posts from the last few weeks. Each one is somebody you could help today.

Mistakes to skip

  • Posting a launch on Product Hunt before talking to a single QA lead.
  • Pitching features instead of running the tool on their real test suite.
  • Targeting large enterprises with long security reviews as your first customer.
  • Offering endless free trials and never naming a price.

Want this done for your testing tool, every day?

Hulby finds the people asking for what you built, writes every reply and email, and keeps you on it until they pay. Free to start.

Find my first customers

Questions

Should I target QA engineers or engineering managers?

Start with QA leads and SDETs to get the trial, then ask them who approves spending. At small startups it is often the CTO.

What if they will not give me access to their repo?

Offer to run it on an open-source fork of a similar project, or let them run a CLI locally so code never leaves their machine.

How much should I charge the first customer?

Pick a simple monthly price that is easy to approve on a card, often under a few hundred dollars. You can raise it later.

Is a free pilot better than a paid one?

No. A small paid pilot proves real demand. Free users rarely give you honest feedback or convert.