1. Pick one painful workflow
Don't sell "internal tools." Sell one job, like a refund approval panel for Shopify support teams or a customer lookup tool for ops on top of Postgres. Choose the one you can demo in under two minutes. Everything below gets easier when the use case is narrow.
2. Find people asking for it right now
Search Reddit (r/sysadmin, r/dataengineering, r/webdev, r/SaaS) and Hacker News comments for phrases like "admin panel for our database", "Retool alternative" or "tired of building internal tools". Also search X for "retool pricing" and "built an admin dashboard". Save every thread with a real person describing a real problem.
3. Answer with help first, product second
Reply to those threads with a genuine answer, even if it isn't your tool. Mention yours only if it fits. Example: "For a refund queue on Postgres, you mostly need read access, one write action and an audit log. I built a tool for exactly this, happy to set it up on your schema if you want to try it."
4. DM the exact job titles who feel the pain
On LinkedIn, target Head of Operations, RevOps Manager, Support Ops Lead and solo engineers at 10 to 100 person startups. Keep it short: "Saw your team is hiring for support ops. Are your agents still asking engineers for database lookups? I can build you a lookup tool on your data this week, free, to see if it helps." Send 15 a day, by hand.
5. Offer to build their first tool for them
Your best sales motion is a done-for-you first tool. Get on a 30 minute call, connect their database or Airtable, and ship a working panel before you hang up if you can. People pay for a tool already saving them time, not for a blank builder.
6. Post the builds where operators hang out
Each tool you build becomes a short post or screen recording: "Built a refund approval tool on Stripe and Postgres in 40 minutes." Share it on Indie Hackers, r/nocode, the Rands Leadership Slack and the RevOps Co-op community, following each group's self-promotion rules. Show the workflow, not the feature list.
7. Write one comparison page
People searching "Retool alternative" or "Appsmith vs" are ready to switch. Write an honest page on what you do better and worse, aimed at one use case. Link it in replies when someone asks for alternatives.
8. Track every conversation and follow up
Keep a simple sheet: name, company, workflow, last contact, next step. Follow up after 3 days and again after a week with something useful, like a template for their use case. Hulby, an AI cofounder, does this finding, drafting and follow-up daily for founders who want to spend their time building.
Mistakes to skip
- Pitching a general-purpose builder instead of one specific workflow.
- Targeting engineers who enjoy building tools instead of the ops people waiting on them.
- Dropping links in communities without answering the actual question.
- Asking for a demo call before showing a working tool on their own data.
Want this done for your internal tools builder, 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 customersQuestions
Should I target developers or non-technical teams?
Start with the ops or support lead who feels the pain, and win over the engineer who has to approve data access. You usually need both.
How do I compete with Retool?
Don't compete on breadth. Be faster and simpler for one workflow, and offer hands-on setup that bigger tools won't.
How do I handle security concerns on early calls?
Offer read-only access first, explain exactly where data goes, and start with a staging database or a CSV export.
How many outreach messages should I send?
Around 15 thoughtful messages a day plus a few helpful replies in communities. Consistency over a few weeks matters more than volume.