How to Find CTOs and Technical Co-Founders at Seed Stage Startups
How to find CTOs and technical co-founders at seed stage startups for recruiting, sales, or partnerships. Covers databases, communities, and AI tools.
Founding AI Engineer @ Origami
CTOs at seed-stage startups make all the technical buying decisions. They choose the cloud provider, the monitoring stack, the CI/CD pipeline, the database, and every developer tool. If you sell developer tools, cloud services, or technical infrastructure, these are your highest-leverage contacts.
The challenge: seed-stage startups are small, often stealth, and the CTO might not even have "CTO" in their LinkedIn title yet.
Quick Answer: To find CTOs at seed-stage startups, use Crunchbase filtered by seed funding + recent funding date, LinkedIn Sales Navigator with title + company stage filters, YC/Techstars/accelerator alumni directories, and Origami to build enriched lists of recently funded startups with CTO contacts. Also monitor Hacker News "Who's Hiring" and developer communities.
Where to Find Seed-Stage CTOs
1. Crunchbase
Filter by seed funding + last 12 months + your target geography. View company pages for co-founder profiles.
2. Origami
Tell Origami: "Find CTOs or technical co-founders at seed-stage startups that raised in the last 6 months. Include name, email, company, funding amount, and tech stack."
3. Accelerator Alumni
YC, Techstars, 500 Global, and other accelerators publish batch lists. Every company has a technical co-founder.
4. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Search title "CTO" or "Co-Founder" + company size "1-10" or "11-50" + funding signals.
5. Developer Communities
Hacker News, Product Hunt launches, IndieHackers, and open source contributors. Technical founders are active in these communities.
Why Seed-Stage CTOs Are Different
- They make buying decisions fast (no procurement process)
- They're building the tech stack from scratch (greenfield)
- They're price-sensitive but time-poor (value free tiers and quick setup)
- They influence their network (other founders, angel investors)
How to Reach Them
Don't pitch enterprise. Pitch simplicity, speed, and value.
"Building from scratch is fun until you're debugging [problem] at 2 AM. [Your tool] handles that for seed-stage teams — free tier to start, takes 10 minutes to set up. Want the link?"
FAQ
How do I find CTOs at seed stage startups? Crunchbase filtered by seed funding, accelerator alumni directories, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and Origami for enriched contact lists.
What's the best way to reach seed-stage CTOs? Email or developer communities (not LinkedIn InMail). Keep it short, technical, and focused on their current build phase.
How do I find startups that just raised seed funding? Crunchbase seed funding filter + last 90 days, TechCrunch startup coverage, and accelerator batch announcements.