A deploy frequency spike occurs when a startup ships code to production at a significantly higher rate than its historical baseline. In the VC Deal Flow Signal dataset, this is the most common signal type. Deploy spikes precede fundraise announcements by a median of 31 days (SSRN 6606558). When a startup increases deploy frequency, it indicates: (1) full-time engineering team expanded, (2) CI/CD pipeline matured, (3) product-market fit driving iteration velocity, and (4) optionality for a fundraise within 4-6 weeks.