How do I get startups to use my open-code project?

[ErezShahaf]

I recently noticed that some easy tickets I get during my day job can be solved with a single prompt, so I built a simple open-code orchestration system between Jiran, Coding agents (cursor/claude), and github.

The goal is to automate the easy tickets that every decent engineer will solve in roughly the same way, and let us just accept a ready PR.

Now I'm stuck on a different problem: how do you get the first real startups to actually try an open source tool like this?

I have posted about my tool in X, reddit, and here. I have received stars and even some positive comments so it does seem like there is some interest in the idea, but AFAIK there isn't a startup that actually uses it.

I'm really not sure how to go about it, I'm not trying to make money from it, so I don't want to start cold approaching companies - but I like building stuff in my spare time and would have loved to see it really being used by startups.

How do I do that?

Repo if anyone is curious: https://github.com/ErezShahaf/Anabranch

[endless-forge]

Find one YC startup whose public job postings mention Jira + Claude/Cursor. They already have the exact stack. DM the CTO directly on X with a one-liner: "built something that automates your easy Jira tickets into PRs automatically — want to try it?" That's your shortest path to a real user.

[ErezShahaf]

I was a little bit reluctant to do it because it is a free product, but maybe it will even feel more authentic.. I'll consider that :)

[codegeek]

Always shoot your shot. If you never ask, the answer is always No. Good luck!!

[endless-forge]

Exactly! You already have the “no,” and if you never try, you'll never know what could happen. So you should try and see what happens.

[deafpolygon]

Why did you use an LLM to generate this answer?

[endless-forge]

What ? Why do you say that ? I actually sound like an LLM model ? Haha

[ErezShahaf]

I think that he said that because you used "-" in your answer :)

[deafpolygon]

> Find one YC startup whose public job postings mention Jira + Claude/Cursor. They already have the exact stack. DM the CTO directly on X with a one-liner: "built something that automates your easy Jira tickets into PRs automatically — want to try it?" That's your shortest path to a real user.

Typical LLM-isms:

- "find this. do that." phrasing

- "the exact X"

- send a one liner

- "that's your shortest X to a Y"

---

Here's what Claude had to say about it:

Yes, it does have some telltale signs. Here's why:

*Structural giveaways:*

- The "here's the insight → here's the action → here's the payoff" format is very common in LLM outputs — it's almost algorithmically tidy.

- The em dash used as a dramatic pause ("automates your easy Jira tickets into PRs automatically — want to try it?") is a pattern LLMs lean on heavily.

- "That's your shortest path to a real user" feels like a summarizing closer that an LLM adds to signal it's wrapping up with a punchline.

*Word/phrase patterns:*

- "exact stack" — this phrasing is very popular in AI-generated startup/GTM advice

- The overall register (confident, tactical, slightly bro-ish but polished) is a very common output of prompts like "give me a GTM strategy"

*What makes it not obviously AI:*

- It's specific enough (Jira + Claude/Cursor, YC, CTO on X) that it doesn't feel like generic filler

- The one-liner pitch itself is actually pretty natural

*The bottom line:* It reads like someone prompted an LLM for "what's the fastest way to find my first user" and lightly edited the output — or didn't edit it at all. The advice isn't bad, but the packaging has that characteristic "polished tactical bullet" energy that's hard to fake as organic thinking.

If you wrote it yourself, the main culprit is probably the closing sentence — humans tend to just stop rather than narrate their own conclusion.

[olemdy]

I wonder if there is a way for one not to connect to Jira but provide PRD or link to a md file with changes to be made, access to code base (fe & be) and your project can implement changes, test fixes and create gitlab MR.

I am looking into this for my team

[ErezShahaf]

So you would have preferred if this was managed actively? But then how would that be better than providing MCPs to cursor? I use mcps which can access all the comments in the company I work at including the PRDs, logs, databases, etc.

The idea of my project is that it is all done asynchronously, is that what you mean? You want it to happen outside of your personal computer?

[olemdy]

Your flow can still work but for those wanting to test it out, you may need to give them a direct path to seeing what it can do locally first then they can add async flow. The one caveat is supporting various tools like ClickUp / Gitlab which we use as an example.

[Mnexium]

I generally am curious too - Im running into a similar issue with my tool build.

Difficult just to get feedback. This seems like a cool project, I dont have a ticketing system otherwise i'd try it.

[ErezShahaf]

Thanks! I wonder if it's easier to get people to use "B2C" opensource projects..

[satvikpendem]

Learn sales and marketing. There are many threads on HN about how to do so.

[ErezShahaf]

Yeah, I definitely miss the marketing skill in "B2B" products.. thanks