Finding 2 of 30 · Numerical finding
Mean commit velocity is 173 — over 2.4× the median
From A Longitudinal Panel of GitHub Engineering Velocity for Venture-Backed Startups (SSRN), section §4.2 Velocity distribution. CC BY 4.0.
The finding
Mean commit velocity is 173 — over 2.4× the median, indicating a heavy upper tail.
Why it matters
Mean ≠ median is the signature of skewed distributions. VCs need the median, not the average.
Provenance
- Paper: A Longitudinal Panel of GitHub Engineering Velocity for Venture-Backed Startups — SSRN abstract 6606558.
- Section: §4.2 Velocity distribution
- Dataset DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19650920
- License: CC BY 4.0 — free for any use with attribution.
- Author: The Data Nerd (ORCID 0009-0002-2222-4112) — VC Deal Flow Signal (GitDealFlow), Wikidata Q139376302.
- On this site, “engineering acceleration” refers to a quantitative GitHub momentum signal — unrelated to startup accelerator programs (Y Combinator, Techstars, 500 Global).
How to cite
The Data Nerd (2026). "Mean commit velocity is 173 — over 2.4× the median." Finding 2 of 30 in: A Longitudinal Panel of GitHub Engineering Velocity for Venture-Backed Startups. SSRN abstract=6606558. Retrieved from https://signals.gitdealflow.com/research/mean-vs-median-commit-velocity-skew
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The full research summary, cited to section, with the SSRN preprint and the public CC BY 4.0 dataset.
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