Get extensionHow to find leads on GitHub and other developer platforms
Companies leave a clear trail on developer platforms. Their public repositories show what they build with, their packages show who depends on them, and their activity shows what they're working on this month. If you sell to engineering teams, this is where to look.
- 1Spot the repository
- 2Press Save
- 3It lands in your list
- 4Follow up
Why developer platforms are worth your time.
Engineering teams rarely announce what they use, but their public work shows it. A repository's dependencies, its commit history and its open issues describe a team's stack and its problems in more detail than a sales call would.
That makes developer platforms unusual: you can qualify a company before you contact it. If their code already depends on the thing you extend or replace, you know the conversation is relevant.
The signals worth saving.
A company's stack
Public repositories name the frameworks and services a team uses.
A popular package
A package with many users means a team with people to support.
A new organisation or model
A fresh organisation page on GitHub or Hugging Face is a team that just started shipping.
A tool you replace or extend
A repository that depends on it is a team that already has the problem you solve.
A quick test before you press Save.
Save it
- An organisation whose stack matches what you sell into
- A project that depends on a tool you extend
- A fast-growing package with a small team behind it
Skip it
- Personal experiments and coursework
- Archived repositories
- Forks with no changes of their own
How to do it.
- Open a repository, model, package or organisation page.
- Press Save beside its name.
- Confirm the owner as the company.
- Save the organisation page when you want the company, or a single repository when that project is the reason.
Two ways to open.
Your [repository] uses [tool]. We maintain [what you make], which plugs into it and removes [pain]. Happy to show how.
Noticed [package] has a lot of users now. If supporting them is getting heavy, that's what we help with.
Templates, with the parts in brackets for you to fill in. The specific detail is what gets a reply, so don't send them as they are.
A founder who sells hosted Postgres tooling finds tidewater/queue, a job queue built on Postgres with four contributors and commits this week. She saves the repository, confirms Tidewater as the owner, and writes to the maintainer about a problem she spotted in their open issues.
An invented example. The people and companies in it are fictional.When to follow up.
Activity is the signal. A repository updated this week has a team working on it now. One untouched for a year doesn't.
Whatever the channel, set a follow-up date in On Radar when you save. A lead without a date is a lead you'll rediscover in three months.
6 sites in this channel.
| Site | Plan | What you save |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub | Power | Save the owner of a repository, model or package, with its website. |
| Hugging Face | Power | Save the owner of a repository, model or package, with its website. |
| GitLab | Power | Save the owner of a repository, model or package, with its website. |
| npm | Power | Save the owner of a repository, model or package, with its website. |
| PyPI | Power | Save the owner of a repository, model or package, with its website. |
| Docker Hub | Power | Save the owner of a repository, model or package, with its website. |
Each name links to its own guide, with where the button sits and exactly what a save keeps. The sources page has the full list.
What to avoid.
The short answers.
Which platforms are covered?
GitHub, Hugging Face, GitLab, npm, PyPI and Docker Hub.
Can I save a whole organisation?
Yes. The button appears on an organisation's own page as well as on a repository, model or package.
Is it acceptable to contact maintainers?
By email, with something useful, usually yes. In issues and pull requests it reads as spam, so keep sales out of them.
Is it safe for my accounts?
Save This Lead never posts, likes, follows or messages, and it never browses on your behalf. It reads a page when you press Save.
What does it cost?
There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $19 a month. The plan each site needs is in the table above and on the pricing page.
Go deeper.
More from Save This Lead.
One button to save.
One place to find it.
Keep useful posts, leads and their context together. Leave the copy-paste routine behind.
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