Pre-Seed Deal Sourcing with GitHub Data: A Practical Guide

Pre-seed startups are the hardest to find through traditional deal sourcing because they have no funding history, press coverage, or database entries. GitHub is one of the few places where pre-seed activity is visible: 1-3 contributors, rapid commit acceleration from a low base, and new repository creation. The key signal is disproportionate acceleration - a small team suddenly shipping at 3-5x their baseline rate, which typically indicates a product breakthrough or preparation for a first fundraise.

Key stats

1-7: Contributors (Typical pre-seed team size)

+200%: Acceleration threshold (Signals product breakthrough)

3-5x: Baseline multiplier (Disproportionate acceleration)

References

[1] GitHub Search API - Repositories: GitHub Docs