Engineering Velocity Benchmarks: What Fast Looks Like on GitHub, by Stage and Sector

Benchmarks exist so you can tell the difference between a team that looks busy and a team that is actually accelerating. This post explains how the weekly panel is composed, how sectors differ in baseline activity, what the acceleration-screen thresholds are, and why the most useful benchmark is a team against its own prior pace.

Key stats

15: Sectors in the current Q3 2026 panel (from web3 (42 startups) to agtech (11))

40 / 5: Acceleration-screen threshold: 40 commits per 14 days and 5 contributors (excludes low-base artifacts)

35-60%: Lower baseline commit velocity in enterprise SaaS (vs. AI-tools startups at equivalent stage)

References

[1] Engineering Acceleration as a VC Deal Flow Signal: SSRN

[2] VC Deal Flow Signal Methodology: GitDealFlow

[3] VC Deal Flow Signal API: GitDealFlow

[4] DORA - Accelerate State of DevOps Research: Google DORA