How do you measure product-market fit for a developer tool? A PMF scoring model from Evil Martians—a product development consultancy for developer tools startups—built on data from 37 devtools companies across AI, infrastructure, and cybersecurity. Five metrics, real benchmarks, and a dual score that tells you whether to invest in product or go-to-market.

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Martian Chronicles

Evil Martians introduces the PMF Compass, a scoring model for developer tools startups built on data from 37 devtools companies including Cursor, Supabase, Linear, and Twilio. The model addresses the shortcomings of the Sean Ellis 'very disappointed' survey by using five observable metrics: time to first value, retention, net revenue retention, free-to-paid conversion, and organic signups. It produces a dual score separating product signal (0–7) from revenue stage (0–7), helping founders diagnose whether they have a product problem or a go-to-market problem. The post includes detailed benchmarks for each metric specific to devtools (which outperform general SaaS), real-world examples at each PMF level from pre-seed through $200M+ ARR, and a live interactive tool on the Evil Martians homepage.

The Devtools PMF Compass—Martian Chronicles, Evil Martians’ team blog