Ask HN: Startups building dev tools, how are you selling it?

There seems to be 2 problems: 1) Developers as target audience. In big companies they don't have buying power. In startups, they don't have money. 2) Little control over outcome. The value (& therefore monetization) is mostly based on how & when the developer is successful with his usecase. Large companies like Microsoft & Oracle emerged out of developer products once. Has it become high effort - low return game now? Thoughts?