Pre-seed sourcing is hard — no Crunchbase profile, no revenue, no press. Here's how to use GitHub engineering signals to find the best pre-seed startups weeks before anyone else does.
Start narrow. You cannot track everything. Pick 3-5 sectors you understand deeply (e.g., developer tools, fintech, climate) and focus your GitHub monitoring there.
Look for startups where the number of commits is accelerating week-over-week. A startup shipping more code each week is likely building product — and likely to raise soon.
A growing contributor count (new engineers joining the GitHub org) is a strong signal. More contributors = more building = more likely the startup is scaling toward a raise.
Stars are a proxy for developer interest. A repo that suddenly spikes in stars — especially a closed-source startup's open-source projects — often precedes a fundraise announcement.
Most pre-seed startups raise 12-18 months after founding. If a startup has been building consistently on GitHub for 12+ months with accelerating velocity, it's likely approaching a raise.
As early as the startup starts building. Most pre-seed startups begin shipping code 6-12 months before any press or Crunchbase profile. GitHub commits are the earliest public signal available.
Developer tools, AI/ML, infrastructure, cybersecurity, fintech, and any sector where the startup builds software in-house. Less effective for hardware, biotech, or consumer apps.
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