I built a tool that reads GitHub to find breakout startups before VCs do
Today I'm launching VC Deal Flow Signal on Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/products/vc-deal-flow-signal
I've been obsessed with an idea for the last few months: what if you could spot the next breakout startup by reading their GitHub activity?
The problem: VCs see the same deals. Warm intros, demo days, TechCrunch — by the time a startup hits your radar, 50 other investors already have the deck. The best deals close before most investors know the company exists.
The insight: GitHub is the largest free dataset of real-time engineering activity in the world. Every commit, every new contributor, every repository — timestamped and public. When a startup's commit velocity spikes 200% in two weeks, something changed. Maybe they just closed a round. Maybe they found product-market fit. Maybe they're about to launch.
Whatever the cause, the signal shows up in the commit graph weeks before it shows up in a press release.
What I built: A system that monitors thousands of startup GitHub orgs across 20 sectors. It calculates 14-day commit velocity, contributor growth, and repository expansion — then ranks startups by engineering acceleration. The site publishes weekly sector rankings with real data.
Real example from this week: carlos-emr (healthcare) — an open-source EMR system whose commit velocity spiked +199% in 14 days. 94 active contributors, up 76%. That's a textbook engineering hiring burst. This kind of pattern has preceded fundraise announcements by 3-6 weeks in our analysis.
The stack: Next.js pSEO site generating 100+ pages from structured data. GitHub API for the data pipeline. Pocketbase for subscriber management. Stripe for payments. Hosted on Vercel. The whole thing was built solo.
Why not just use Harmonic, Dealroom, or Forager? I looked at every deal flow platform out there. They charge $10K+/year, require you to book a demo just to see the product, and run on proprietary black-box data. Forager has a free trial but only searches people, not startups. None of them track engineering momentum. I wanted something transparent, self-serve, and affordable enough for solo angels — not just funds with six-figure tooling budgets.
Current state:
- 20 sectors tracked (AI/ML, Fintech, Healthcare, Cybersecurity, Developer Tools, etc.)
- 60+ startups showing measurable acceleration signals right now
- Free weekly Signal Digest (5 breakout startups with real data)
- Paid Dashboard at EUR 9.97/mo (60+ startups, filters by sector/stage/geography)
- Free weekly signals on Telegram
NEW: Works inside Claude. I just published an MCP server so you can query our data directly from Claude Desktop or Claude Code. Ask "which fintech startups are accelerating?" and get live data without leaving your AI workflow. Install: npx [@gitdealflow](/gitdealflow)/mcp-signal
NEW: Works inside Crunchbase. I also shipped a free Chrome extension that injects a green "Accelerating" badge onto any startup profile on Crunchbase, AngelList, or PitchBook that's showing engineering momentum. Same workflow you already have, new layer of signal. Install: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/hehkgipiamajnnlpkfhpeoeaoaogmknn
What's next: Public API for investors who want to pipe signals into their own workflows, watchlists, or trading systems.
Ask: Would you use something like this? If you're an angel investor or just curious about data-driven deal sourcing — what sectors would you want tracked?
Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/products/vc-deal-flow-signal
Site: https://gitdealflow.com
Sector rankings: https://signals.gitdealflow.com
Free Telegram: https://t.me/gitdealflow
GitDealFlow is a strong signal layer, but the name feels more like a feature than the company.
You’re not just tracking GitHub activity. You’re building an early market intelligence layer for investors before the deal becomes obvious.
That category needs a name that can carry more than GitHub over time: sectors, APIs, Crunchbase overlays, Claude workflows, maybe eventually broader startup momentum data.
For that kind of product, something like Exirra.com or Viryxa.com would feel much more like a serious intelligence platform than a narrow GitHub deal-flow tool.
The product has range. The name should leave room for it.
The "narrow name" debate is real, but I land on the other side: "GitHub" in the name is load-bearing, not a cage. For developer-investors - the actual target - the source being explicit is the differentiator. "We track GitHub" answers the black-box objection in three words. Every competitor doing "intelligence platform" branding has proprietary methodology nobody can audit. That opacity is the product. Here, the data source is the point. If the product expands beyond GitHub eventually (App Store velocity, LinkedIn headcount signals, etc.), yes, the name needs revisiting. Right now the constraint is the feature. Exirra and Viryxa sound like Solana projects that didn't make it. Hard pass.
Congrats on the launch!
Love the idea! However I'm not an investor so i'm not the target audience, but still love how you predict future announcements only using public data
Do you plan to add more data sources? Like recent job postings for example?
Thanks, really appreciate that. Yes, 100% - more public data sources are the next step, and job postings are one of the most interesting ones. GitHub tells you engineering momentum, hiring data can help explain why. The big goal is to build a transparent multi-signal system, not another black box. Love that the public-data prediction angle resonates even outside the investor crowd.