B2B technology companies: the segments, real examples, who buys inside each one, and how to approach the account.

Definition

B2B technology companies are companies whose products are technology sold to other organizations rather than to individual consumers: software, cloud infrastructure, security, data, developer tools, hardware and the technical services that keep all of it running.

The customer is a company, so a purchase involves several roles, a contract or subscription, a security review and a budget that belongs to a department. That is what separates them from consumer technology brands, even when the underlying engineering looks similar.

They are one group inside the wider set of B2B companies, which also includes manufacturers, distributors and service firms of every kind. This page stays with technology: what these companies sell, how they are classified, how they sell, and how to prospect them.

Example companies on this page are described only with what their own annual report on Form 10-K says. Nothing is ranked. The segment tables, the buying committee, the signals and the template are this page's own framing, written to help a seller decide which kind of technology company to approach and how.

Two things people mean by B2B tech

The phrase gets used in two ways, and the pages that rank for it mix them. Knowing which one you are reading saves confusion.

This page uses the first reading. The second still matters, because a distributor buying an ordering portal is itself a customer of a B2B technology company, and the same seller may need to understand both sides.

B2B commerce technology, the other half of the category

One group of B2B technology companies exists to run business-to-business purchasing itself. Their products replace phone orders, emailed spreadsheets and paper purchase orders with digital workflows that a buying organization can control and audit.

These layers are why a B2B purchase can look self-serve and still be governed. A logged-in business buyer sees negotiated prices, an approval chain and an invoice option, which a consumer checkout does not have.

For a seller, this half of the category is a market in itself. Distributors, manufacturers and wholesalers buy commerce technology too, and in this page's view they are often less crowded with outreach than software companies are.

B2B tech companies vs consumer tech companies

The table is this page's general view, not a rule. Many companies do both: a design tool with a free personal plan and an enterprise plan is consumer facing at the top of the funnel and B2B where the contracts are. The pricing page often shows which side carries the business.

The main categories of B2B technology companies

The map below is the one that matters commercially, because each segment has a different buyer, a different budget line and a different reason to say no. It was written for this page; other guides group the same companies into fewer or more types.

Many real companies straddle two rows. A security vendor that also sells consulting sits in cybersecurity and in services, and it can show two very different sales cycles depending on which side of the house you touch.

Business application software

This is the segment most people picture first. The product is software a department uses every day, delivered over the internet and paid as a subscription, which is what B2B SaaS means. That page covers SaaS pricing, metrics and examples in depth, so this one only places it on the map.

The buyer is usually the head of the function that will use it. Finance and IT join later, to check the spend and the security posture. In this page's view, the real competitor is often a spreadsheet plus a shared inbox rather than another vendor.

Cloud infrastructure and platforms

Cloud companies sell computing capacity instead of a finished application. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, in SP 800-145, describes infrastructure as a service as the capability to provision processing, storage, networks and other fundamental computing resources on which the customer runs its own software.

The same document separates platform as a service and software as a service by how much the customer controls. The full side by side comparison sits on the B2B SaaS page; for prospecting, what matters is that infrastructure spend is metered and gets reviewed whenever the bill moves.

Developer tools and API infrastructure

Here the first user and the first buyer are rarely the same person. An engineer adopts a tool on a free tier, the team standardizes on it, and only then does someone request a company plan with invoicing, single sign-on and a security review.

Selling into this segment means respecting that order of events. This page's advice: pressure applied before a tool is embedded in a workflow tends to remove the seller from the account rather than speed anything up.

Cybersecurity

Security companies sell against risk rather than productivity, which changes the conversation. The buyer must justify spend that prevents an event rather than producing output, so evidence, references and audit findings carry more weight than a feature list.

They are also strict customers themselves. Expect questionnaires, proof of your own controls and a careful legal review when you sell to one.

Data, analytics and information

This segment covers the plumbing that moves data, the tools that report on it and the providers that sell data itself. Company records, firmographics, contact data and intent data all belong to the last group.

Buyers judge coverage, accuracy and refresh rate before anything else. If you sell here, expect a sample or a match test against the buyer's own list, which is the fastest way a data claim gets checked.

Hardware, devices and networking

Hardware moves on refresh cycles, capital budgets and lead times, not on a marketing calendar. A deal often depends on when existing equipment reaches end of support, and on whether a reseller or integrator already holds the relationship.

Some hardware companies now offer the same equipment several ways. Dell's annual report, for example, lists utility, subscription, as-a-service, lease, loan and immediate pay models, so one account can be a one-time purchase and a recurring contract at once.

IT and technology services

Services firms sell capacity and expertise: consulting, implementation, integration, managed operations. Revenue is project-based or contracted monthly, and the decisive factor is usually the named team and its references rather than a product demo.

They matter to product vendors as a channel. A services firm that already runs a customer's systems can introduce a product faster than an outbound campaign, which is why many product companies run partner programs for integrators.

How official statistics classify technology companies

There is no single "technology" industry code. In North America, businesses are classified under the North American Industry Classification System, and the U.S. Census Bureau's 2022 NAICS Manual explains that NAICS groups establishments by similar production processes, a concept it calls supply-based or production-oriented.

That has a practical consequence for prospecting. Technology companies land in several sectors depending on what they actually do, so a seller who filters by one code sees only part of the category. The table below lists the codes that matter most.

The descriptions are this page's short summaries of the 2022 definitions. The first four digits of 541511 to 541519 form industry group 5415, Computer Systems Design and Related Services, which the manual describes as providing expertise in information technologies.

Why older lists say 511210

Software publishers used a different code before 2022. The manual's concordance between 2017 and 2022 NAICS maps 2017 industry 511210, Software Publishers, to 2022 industry 513210. Company databases and older reports may still show the 2017 code, so search for both when you build a list.

Where the lines fall

The cross-references in the manual draw useful borders. Hosting and infrastructure support for software publishers on a contract or fee basis belongs in 518210, designing custom software for specific users belongs in 541511, and reselling packaged software without publishing it belongs in wholesale or retail trade.

For a seller, these borders mirror the segments above. A software publisher, a hosting provider and an integrator can all call themselves technology companies, yet the codes, like the buyers, are different. Treat codes as a filter that narrows a list, then confirm each company on its own site or filing.

B2B technology company examples, by segment

Each company below is described only with what its latest annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, says in Item 1, Business. They are illustrations of a segment, not a ranking or a recommendation.

Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow, Cisco and Intel are described from their own filings on the B2B companies page linked above, so the examples here cover other segments.

Developer tools and observability

• Datadog describes itself as an AI-powered observability and security platform for cloud applications, delivered as a SaaS platform and used by organizations of all sizes across a wide range of industries.
• Its report describes a land-and-expand business model in which customers can expand their footprint on a self-service basis.

Communications APIs

• Twilio offers communications application programming interfaces (APIs) that let developers embed messaging, voice, email and video interactions into their customer-facing applications, for businesses of all sizes.
• Its report says revenue comes from a combination of usage-based and subscription-based fees.

Cybersecurity

• CrowdStrike sells its Falcon cybersecurity platform as cloud modules through a SaaS subscription-based model.
• Its report says it sells primarily through sales and partner teams that use a network of channel partners, and offers a free trial through its website and the AWS, Google and Microsoft marketplaces.

Data platforms

• Snowflake describes the AI Data Cloud, a platform that lets customers consolidate data, apply AI, build data applications and share data products.
• It provides the platform through what its report calls a consumption-based business model.

Cloud infrastructure and enterprise software

• Oracle provides products and services that build, run and support enterprise IT, delivered as cloud, on-premise and hybrid deployments.
• Its report says substantially all customers buy software support contracts when they buy an Oracle software license, and names businesses, government agencies, educational institutions and resellers among its customers.

Hardware and networking

• Dell Technologies describes solutions ranging from client devices and peripherals to servers, networking and storage, sold through a direct sales force and a global network of channel partners.
• Arista Networks describes client-to-cloud networking for a customer base it groups as Cloud and AI Titans, AI and Specialty Providers, and Enterprise.
• Arista's report says it sells through a direct sales force and channel partners, including distributors, value-added resellers, systems integrators and OEM partners, and that two customers each accounted for more than 10 percent of its 2025 sales.

IT services

• Cognizant describes itself as a professional services company. Its listed services include consulting, application development, systems integration, quality engineering, application maintenance, infrastructure and security, and business process services.
• Its report describes a partner ecosystem that includes hyperscalers, cloud providers and enterprise software companies.

Vertical technology

• Veeva Systems provides industry cloud solutions for the global life sciences industry, with offerings that span cloud software, data and business consulting.

How B2B technology companies make money

• Subscription per seat: a recurring fee for each named user, common in business application software.
• Usage or consumption based: metered use such as compute, storage, records, messages or transactions. Snowflake and Twilio both describe usage or consumption in their filings.
• Tiered platform fees: a package of features and limits, with jumps at defined thresholds.
• Transaction share: a percentage of payments or trades processed through the product.
• License and support: a right to use software plus a support contract. Oracle's filing says substantially all license customers also buy support.
• Hardware with financing options: purchase, lease, loan or as-a-service, as Dell's filing lists.
• Services and projects: a scope and a price for defined work, billed on milestones or monthly.
• Channel margin: revenue earned by resellers, distributors and integrators on someone else's product.

In this page's view, the model tells you what the company worries about. A metered business watches consumption closely; a seat-based business watches renewals and headcount at its customers; a project business watches the pipeline of new scopes.

How B2B technology companies sell

The filings show these motions combined. Datadog's report splits its sales team into enterprise sales, a high velocity inside sales team, customer success, and a partner team that works with resellers, system integrators, referral partners and managed service providers.

CrowdStrike's report adds managed service providers and managed security service providers that operate its platform on a customer's behalf. That is a channel where the buyer never runs the product directly, which changes who a seller needs to reach.

Because most companies run two or three motions at once, one account can be worked by a self-serve funnel and an enterprise team in the same quarter. The stage model behind all of them is the standard B2B sales process, and the choices between motions belong in a written B2B sales strategy.

Tech startups vs established technology companies

The same segment buys very differently at different stages. A seed-stage startup and a public company in the same category share a label, not a buying process. This stage view was written for this page and describes tendencies, not rules.

A funding round is one of the clearest triggers in this category because it creates budget and new hires at once. The timing and noise around that trigger are covered in Series A startups.

Public companies are the opposite case. They are slower to buy, but their 10-K tells you in their own words what they sell, to whom and through which channels, which is better research than any list article.

The buying committee inside a technology company

At most technology companies above startup size, nobody buys alone. The committee below is a working map of the roles you meet, not a fixed org chart, and several roles are often held by one person at a small company.

Working several of these people at once is called multithreading in sales. At a technology company it is close to mandatory, because the technical evaluator and the security reviewer can each stop a deal the champion wants.

Security review and SOC 2 reports

Selling software or services to a technology company usually means passing its security review. The buyer wants evidence about how you protect its data, not a promise, and the request arrives as a questionnaire, a list of subprocessors and a request for independent reports.

The most common independent report in this context is the SOC 2. The AICPA describes its System and Organization Controls offerings as services CPAs may provide on the controls of a service organization.

According to the AICPA's description of its SOC 2 guide, a SOC 2 examination covers controls at a service organization relevant to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality or privacy, and customers and business partners often request a SOC 2 report from the service organization.

• Prepare before the first call: a short security page, your report status and a named contact for questionnaires.
• Ask early who reviews vendors: the reviewer is a member of the committee, even if they never join a meeting.
• Never overstate: claiming a report you do not have ends the deal and the relationship.

How B2B technology companies do marketing

Marketing at these companies is aimed at a committee that researches before it talks to anyone. In this page's view, the job is rarely the sale itself: it is creating demand across several roles and handing sales accounts that are ready to speak.

• Content and search: documentation, comparisons, calculators and guides that answer what technical buyers type into search.
• Product marketing: positioning, category language and proof, so the product is understood in one sentence by people who buy tools for a living.
• Digital demand generation: paid search, social and retargeting aimed at roles and companies rather than broad audiences.
• Account-based marketing: campaigns built around a named account list, described in ABM strategy.
• Community and developer relations: documentation, sample projects and events, a main channel for developer tools.
• Partner and marketplace marketing: joint content with integrators and listings on the marketplaces where buyers already purchase.
• Events and peer reviews: conferences, webinars and public review sites, where buyers hear from peers instead of vendors.

Technical audiences check claims. This page's advice is to explain how the product works, including what it does not do, because a reader who is checking rather than browsing notices adjectives with nothing behind them.

What makes selling to tech companies different

The points below are this page's view, drawn from how the segments buy. They are not measured results, but each one changes a concrete step in the sale.

• They evaluate like experts. Your buyer may have bought, built or replaced tools like yours before and will test claims rather than accept them.
• The stack decides fit. A product that does not integrate with what they already run can be out before pricing is discussed.
• Security review is a stage, not a formality. Questionnaires, penetration test summaries and audit reports are part of the deal timeline.
• Build versus buy is a live option. Engineering teams can decide to build a smaller version internally, which is a competitor with no price tag.
• Budgets move with usage. Where spend is metered, a customer's bad quarter can land on your renewal, whatever the contract says.
• They hear a lot of outreach. Technical and IT roles are a common target for many sellers, so a generic message competes with many others.

The practical consequence is that a weak claim fails fast here. The longer view of why technical buyers filter outreach is in IT lead generation.

Sales jobs inside a B2B technology company

If you sell to these companies, you meet their revenue team as competitors and partners. If you are hiring into one, these are the jobs. Datadog's 10-K lists the roles in its sales and marketing organization, which is a useful map of a typical team. The job descriptions in the table are this page's summary.

The sales engineer is the role most specific to this category. O*NET OnLine, from the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration, describes sales engineers as people who sell business goods or services whose selling requires a technical background equivalent to a bachelor's degree in engineering.

Among the tasks O*NET lists are developing or responding to proposals for specific customer requirements, including responses to requests for proposal, and collaborating with sales teams on customer requirements. In a technical sale, that person often decides whether the evaluation passes.

For a seller, the job posts themselves are research. Hiring for a role that owns your problem is one of the signals in the table further down.

How to research and target B2B technology companies

Targeting this category well means narrowing by segment, stack and stage rather than by the word technology, which on its own covers companies with almost nothing in common.

1. Pick the segment, not the industry

   Decide whether you sell to application software companies, infrastructure companies, security companies, data companies, hardware makers or services firms. Each has a different buyer and budget line.

2. Write the profile down

   Segment, headcount, funding stage, region, business model and the trigger that makes your product relevant. Put it in an ideal customer profile that sales and marketing both agree on.

3. Filter by code, then by stack

   Use NAICS codes such as 513210, 518210 and 5415 to narrow the list, then technographics to find companies running the tools your product complements or replaces. Job posts and integration directories are checkable sources.

4. Build the account list

   Company databases, account filters on LinkedIn, marketplace and partner directories, conference exhibitor lists, investor portfolio pages and, for public companies, filings on EDGAR.

5. Map the committee

   For each account, name the likely champion, the budget owner and the technical evaluator before writing anything. A list of companies without people in it is not a target list.

6. Rank by signal, then contact

   Work the accounts that fit and show a change, through a planned cadence across email, LinkedIn and phone.

Researching one technology company

For a public company, read Item 1 of the 10-K: it says what the company sells, to whom, how it sells and which partners it relies on. For a private company, the product documentation, the pricing page, the security page and the job posts usually answer the same questions.

Write down three things before you write to anyone: the segment the company belongs to, the motion it sells through, and the stage it is at. Those three choices shape every line of the first message.

Signals worth acting on at a tech company

The readings in this table were written for this page. They describe what a signal often suggests, not what it proves.

A signal is a reason to write this week rather than proof of a deal. Check it yourself before you mention it, because a signal quoted wrongly tells the reader that a tool wrote the message.

Writing to a buyer at a technology company

Expert buyers read the first line and decide. What survives that test, in this page's view, is a specific observation about their situation, one problem they recognize, and a question that is easy to answer honestly.

• Name the segment correctly. Calling an infrastructure company a SaaS vendor signals that you did not look.
• Lead with the problem, not the product. Feature lists compete with the buyer's own roadmap.
• Say what you will not claim. Skipping unverifiable numbers reads as confidence, not weakness.
• Write to the role that owns the pain. The security leader and the engineering manager care about different failures.
• Make the ask small. One question is easier to answer than a calendar link in a first message.

Commercial email to business addresses is still regulated. The Federal Trade Commission's CAN-SPAM compliance guide states that the law makes no exception for business-to-business email, and that a recipient's opt-out request must be honored within 10 business days.

The same guide requires a valid physical postal address in the message and a clear way to opt out. Treat both as requirements in every sequence, not preferences.

How to tell whether a company is a B2B technology company

These are signs, not proof. A company that shows several of them is very likely selling technology to businesses.

• The site addresses roles and teams, such as engineering leaders or security teams, rather than individuals.
• Pricing is per seat, per usage or behind a contact sales button.
• There is a documentation site, a status page, an integrations directory or a public API reference.
• Trust material exists: a security page, independent reports, subprocessor lists, service level commitments.
• Open jobs include account executives, sales engineers, customer success and partner managers.
• For a public company, Item 1 of the 10-K names businesses, governments or institutions as customers.

Industry codes help but will not settle it alone. As the NAICS section above shows, software, hosting, IT services and device makers sit in different sectors, so one filter never captures the whole category.

Mistakes sellers make with this category

• Treating technology as one market. It is a set of segments whose buyers share very little.
• Targeting by one industry code, which misses software publishers, hosting providers or services firms filed under another.
• Pitching the champion and never finding the budget owner, then losing the quarter to silence.
• Ignoring the security review until late, so the deal stalls in a questionnaire.
• Quoting a vendor benchmark to an audience that knows how the benchmark was produced.
• Assuming a free tier user has authority, when the company plan is bought by someone else entirely.
• Describing a company from a list article instead of its own site or filing.
• Sending the same message to engineers, security leaders and finance, and getting a reply from none of them.

In a sequence

The template below was written for this page. It opens on a verified change at the account, connects it to one problem the reader owns, and asks a single question. Replace every placeholder or do not send it.

Subject: {{signal}} at {{companyName}}

Hi {{firstName}},

I saw {{companyName}} {{signal}}. At {{segment}} companies, that often puts {{problem}} on someone's plate soon after.

We work with {{roleTitle}} teams on {{outcome}}. No numbers attached, because ours come from our own customers and yours will differ.

Is {{problem}} yours to solve, or does it sit with someone else there?

{{senderName}}

Frequently asked questions