The best investors don't just use Crunchbase. They layer GitHub signals, hiring data, web traffic, and product launches into a multi-signal sourcing engine. Here's how.
GitHub engineering activity is the earliest signal. Startups start shipping code months before they hire a PR firm or appear on Crunchbase.
Once a startup is shipping, they hire. Track LinkedIn/Wellfound for headcount growth, especially in engineering roles. A startup doubling its engineering team in 6 months is likely raising.
Growing web traffic signals product traction. A B2B SaaS startup with accelerating traffic is likely acquiring customers — and likely needs capital to scale.
Frequent product launches and changelog updates signal a shipping culture. A startup dropping features every 2 weeks and growing is in execution mode.
One signal is interesting. Three signals converging is conviction. When GitHub + hiring + web traffic all point up, that's a startup worth reaching out to.
Traditional sourcing (Crunchbase, PitchBook) shows you what already happened. Alternative data (GitHub, hiring, web traffic) shows you what's happening right now. The gap is 3-6 weeks — and in hot sectors like AI, that's the difference between getting allocation and getting left out.
No — GitDealFlow does the GitHub analysis for you. The other layers (hiring, web traffic) are optional bonuses, not requirements. Start with one strong signal layer and add more over time.
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