How to get clients for a software development company (2026)
2026-10-23 · updated 2026-10-23 · 11 min read · Adam Axelsson, founder of Revexa
To get clients for a software development or IT services company in 2026, write to companies on the day their software forces a decision, not to cold lists. Seven public signals mark that day: a developer role that will not fill, funding with a tiny tech team, a new CTO, technology losing vendor support, a cloud move, a regulatory deadline and a public tender. Most carry a date you can check for free: Microsoft stops supporting .NET 8 and .NET 9 on 10 November 2026, and security support for PHP 8.2 ends on 31 December 2026 (Microsoft, php.net).
For owners and business developers at software, IT services and outsourcing firms of 5 to 100 people selling B2B; the general playbook is in how to get clients. Checked on 23 October 2026; US list prices, before tax. Revexa builds Leo, which watches three of the signals below.
Buying signals that show a company needs a dev shop or IT partner
The best signals cost the buyer something every week they are ignored: an empty seat, a support deadline, an audit. Meanings are our assessment; examples are fictional.
| Signal | What it usually means | Free way to see it | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Developer role open two months or more | Hiring is failing; capacity now beats a perfect hire | Posting dates on the careers page; the same title reposted monthly | A logistics firm has sought a machine learning engineer since July |
| Funding at a company with a small tech team | A funded roadmap, too few engineers | The announcement, then a "founding engineer" ad or two engineers on LinkedIn | A seed-funded insurtech with two developers promises an app |
| New CTO or head of engineering | Architecture, vendors and backlog get reviewed early | "Started a new position" posts, press releases, team pages | A new CTO's first post is about technical debt |
| Technology losing vendor support | Security fixes stop on a fixed date | Lifecycle pages; PHP's default setting puts its version in an X-Powered-By header, though a server owner can turn it off; ng-app in page source points to AngularJS; net8.0 in a public repository | See the dates below |
| Cloud migration | A data centre exit or cost project, with work on both sides of it | Job ads naming a migration; hosting and DNS changes (how to spot them) | An ad for an "Azure migration engineer, 12-month contract" |
| Regulatory deadline | Security and contract work the company cannot skip | The law on EUR-Lex; job ads naming NIS2 or DORA; sector and size | A 120-person payment firm hires a "DORA third-party risk lead" |
| Public tender | Scope, deadline and often budget, in writing | TED under CPV 72000000-5, "IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support"; SAM.gov, where every solicitation carries one NAICS code, such as 541511, Custom Computer Programming Services | A health authority tenders a booking system |
In ManpowerGroup's 2026 survey of 39,063 employers in 41 countries, AI model and application development was the hardest skill to find, named by 20 percent (ManpowerGroup, 26 February 2026). A company that cannot hire an AI engineer may rent a team that has one.
End-of-support dates to watch
Earliest first, from each vendor:
| Technology | Support ends | Note |
|---|---|---|
| AngularJS | January 2022 | "AngularJS support has officially ended" (AngularJS) |
| Windows 10 (except LTSC editions) | 14 October 2025 | Extended Security Updates for organizations: $61 per device in year one, doubling yearly, up to three years (Microsoft) |
| PHP 8.1 | 31 December 2025 | End of life (php.net) |
| .NET 8 and .NET 9 | 10 November 2026 | .NET 10 is supported until 14 November 2028 (Microsoft) |
| PHP 8.2 | 31 December 2026 | Security fixes only until then (php.net) |
Regulatory deadlines that create IT work
Regulation brings work with dates the buyer cannot move. This is not legal advice.
- NIS2 (Directive (EU) 2022/2555): national rules were due to apply from 18 October 2024. Scope depends first on sector: Article 2 covers entities of the types in Annexes I and II that are at least medium-sized under the EU SME definition, which means 50 or more staff, or annual turnover and balance sheet total both above €10 million. Some types, such as DNS and trust service providers, are covered whatever their size. Article 21 requires "supply chain security", so clients will question you, and managed service providers are themselves in Annex I.
- DORA (Regulation (EU) 2022/2554): applies to financial entities from 17 January 2025. Article 30 lists what every contract with an ICT provider must contain, including the countries where services are provided and data processed.
- Cyber Resilience Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/2847): makers of products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities and severe incidents from 11 September 2026, with most other obligations applying from 11 December 2027.
Fictional example: a .NET shop works the November deadline
Fictional example: a 22-person .NET shop finds regional job ads asking for .NET 8, checks those companies' public repositories for net8.0 and writes to each CTO: "Your job ads ask for .NET 8. Microsoft ends support for it on 10 November. We have moved three codebases of your size to .NET 10, supported until November 2028; want the one-page plan we start from?" It is about the prospect's date, not the shop's services, and would make no sense to anyone not on .NET 8, which is the point.
How to win software development clients: channels ranked by cost per client
Cheapest first by usual cost per won client (our assessment). Cold outreach to cold lists is left out on purpose: a list of "fintechs with 50 to 500 employees" says nothing about who needs a developer this quarter.
| # | Channel | Cash cost | What you need first |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Referrals and past clients | Your time | A register of every system you built and its owner today |
| 2 | Partner programs | AWS: free to join, $2,500 a year for a services tier; Microsoft: an annual fee for a Solutions Partner designation | Certified staff and launched projects |
| 3 | A niche by industry or technology | Your time | Two or three delivered projects there |
| 4 | Case studies with numbers | Time and the client's permission | A metric the client lets you publish |
| 5 | Marketplaces | Clutch profile free; Upwork 0 to 15 percent per contract | Reviews and a sharp profile; expect price comparison |
| 6 | Public tenders | Bid writing time | References and certifications; expect long cycles |
Past clients are a signal source: every system you shipped on .NET 8, PHP 8.2 or AngularJS has a deadline, and its owner would rather hear it from you.
Partner programs. Registering with the AWS Partner Network costs nothing (AWS), but each services tier (Select, Advanced, Premier) carries a $2,500 annual APN fee. The entry Select tier asks for 4 people with AWS accreditations (2 technical, 2 business), 2 people with a foundational and 2 with a technical AWS certification, and 3 launched customer opportunities worth $1,500 or more in monthly recurring revenue together (AWS). A Solutions Partner designation in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program needs at least 70 of 100 points across performance, skilling and customer success, with points in each category, plus an annual fee that depends on the benefits chosen (Microsoft). Join the platform your clients run.
A niche picks your signals. "Laravel for logistics" tells you which job ads to read and which PHP date to watch; "custom software" tells you nothing. Case studies then prove it: weeks to production, the cloud bill before and after.
Marketplaces. Clutch gives no sponsorship prices; pricing "varies by level of sponsorship and the number of pages your company sponsors" (Clutch). Toptal admits individuals, fewer than 3 percent of applicants, and charges its clients a flat $79 monthly subscription for talent matching on top of the hours it bills, so in our reading it suits one specialist, not a team.
The AI shift: sell outcomes, ownership and operations
In our reading, AI coding tools have made writing code cheaper, so buyers ask what a development company adds beyond code.
- AI is part of the job. In Stack Overflow's 2026 Developer Survey (30,903 responses, 169 countries, June to August 2026), 80 percent used AI at least an hour a day, and 48 percent trust it when they can easily validate the answers (Stack Overflow, AI chapter).
- Buyers saw limited gains. In Deloitte's 2024 Global Outsourcing Survey of 500+ executives, 83 percent used AI in outsourced services, but gains were limited by "challenges in governance and contracting for AI requirements", and outcome-based delivery was growing (Deloitte).
Sell three things instead of hours. An outcome with a date: "checkout live by 1 March, fixed fee", so a faster team keeps its gain. Ownership: you answer for every line, AI-written or not, and the contract says how it is reviewed. Operations: monitoring, patching and the next end-of-support date, the work NIS2 and DORA clients must document. The bottleneck moved from writing code to knowing what to build.
How to find clients for software outsourcing: nearshore or offshore
Buyers choose nearshore for shared hours and simpler data rules, offshore for a larger talent pool and lower cost (our assessment). No hourly rates here: we found no primary source we trust.
| What the buyer asks | Nearshore | Offshore |
|---|---|---|
| Can we talk during our day? | Mostly (our assessment) | A few shared hours (our assessment) |
| Can personal data from the EU go there? | Inside the EU and EEA, yes; the Commission also lists the UK, Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, among others, as adequate | Without an adequacy decision, as for India, ongoing transfers need another safeguard, such as standard contractual clauses |
| Fits a DORA-regulated client? | The contract names where work is done and data processed | The same rule, more questions |
Name your time zones, data locations and transfer tool up front; a DORA buyer must put them in the contract anyway.
Winning IT services clients with Leo
Leo by Revexa is an AI GTM agent that finds the B2B companies ready to buy and starts the conversations that turn them into customers, by email and LinkedIn. By default you approve every message before it is sent.
Of this page's seven signals, Leo watches three: hiring and job ads, funding, and new executives in the buying role, such as a new CTO. Support end dates, cloud migrations, regulation and tenders are not on its list; those checks stay with you.
Leo builds your customer profile from your website, judges each company's business model, finds the right person and drafts the email or LinkedIn message in your voice. Review mode is the default: nothing is sent until you approve the draft in the portal, Slack or iMessage, and autonomous mode can be turned on per channel. With HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Upsales or Close connected, current clients and open deals stay out, and lost deals return on a new signal. Leo writes no cold messages to leads in Germany, because of UWG §7.
Per month, Leo costs $99 in the US and the rest of the world, €89 in Europe and 999 SEK in Sweden, excluding VAT or sales tax; the first 7 days are free and there is no lock-in (pricing). 10x cheaper? Only next to a hired SDR: our calculation finds 12 to 23 times lower cost per held meeting; compared with doing it by hand the factor is 5 to 9, and with a good tool stack 3 to 5.
Skip Leo if tenders, partner programs or marketplaces already bring most of your projects, if most of your buyers are German, or if you need customer results before a trial: Revexa started in Sweden in 2026 and has none published yet.
Related: client acquisition strategies, where to find clients and lead generation for SaaS.
Other industries: Web design, Marketing agencies, Consultants and Recruitment agencies.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get clients for a software development company?
Write to companies when a public event forces a software decision: an unfilled developer role, funding with a small team, a new CTO, an end-of-support date, a cloud move, a regulation or a tender. Back it with past clients, a partner program and case studies with numbers.
How do I get clients for an IT company?
An IT services company should start with deadlines its clients cannot skip: Windows 10 support ended on 14 October 2025 (LTSC editions aside), .NET 8 and .NET 9 lose it on 10 November 2026 and PHP 8.2 on 31 December 2026, and NIS2 and DORA add security and contract work in the EU. Add a partner program and tenders under CPV 72000000-5.
How do I find clients for software outsourcing?
Look for companies that cannot hire fast enough, such as long-open developer roles or funded startups with two engineers, and state where your team works, which hours overlap and how personal data is transferred.
How do dev shops win new customers without cold outreach?
Through past clients whose systems reach end of support, partner programs, directories such as Clutch, tenders and replies to dated signals. A cold list of a sector says nothing about who needs a developer now.
What should a software development company sell now that AI writes code?
Outcomes, ownership and operations: a fixed result with a date, accountability for every line including AI-written code, and running the system afterwards. In Deloitte's 2024 survey, 83 percent of executives used AI in outsourced services, yet governance and contracting limited the gains.
Should a dev shop offer nearshore or offshore delivery?
Shared hours and simpler data rules favour nearshore; a larger talent pool favours offshore. EU buyers can send personal data to countries with an adequacy decision without extra safeguards, and for ongoing transfers elsewhere need one, such as standard contractual clauses.