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Gitlab is one of the pioneers of "remote-first" [0] and "building in public" [1], to the extent of sometimes even live-streaming CEO meetings [2] and sales pitc

Gitlab is one of the pioneers of "remote-first" [0] and "building in public" [1], to the extent of sometimes even live-streaming CEO meetings [2] and sales pitches [3] Gitlab, I believe, informs the common strategy behind most other source-available ycombinator enterprise startups: the buyer-based open-core model [4] Congratulations Gitlab. You're far from a copycat and deserve all the success for relentless execution and radical transparency, if nothing else [5] [0] https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/gOp4lKSCulI https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/gOp4lKSCulI [1] https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/vCiLMLC2Rhs https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/vCiLMLC2Rhs [2] https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/uUwmlJfim6U https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/uUwmlJfim6U [3] https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/XcqloQezOUg https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/XcqloQezOUg [4] https://www.heavybit.com/library/video/commercial-open-source-business-strategies/ https://www.heavybit.com/library/video/commercial-open-sourc... [5] https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/values/ https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/values/

INTPenis 5y ago
Yeah I absolutely support Gitlab and love seeing new projects use Gitlab over Github. But to be fair, they have a massive backlog of issues to fix. Basic issues too, like variables not expanding correctly in CI jobs, or Google not being able to index projects on gitlab.com unless there's another page already linking to it. I've been using Gitlab.com and Gitlab on-prem since 2013 and over the years I've found many of these bugs that I feel should be top priority instead of new features.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- reilly3000 5y ago
  With their business model, a constant stream of new features is the only thing that pays the bills. Their paid tiers get the new features, and almost all of them eventually wind up in the open product. With a healthy IPO they should be resourced enough to put some extra hands on the backlog. +1 for prioritizing old tickets!
  - sillysaurusx 5y ago
    I don’t really think that IPOing is about acquiring more resources. The point is to get rich. The resources are the means to do that, and everything else is a happy side effect. Hopefully, yes, they will choose to do as you say. But the tickets didn’t language because they were resource constrained. They languished because they were worthless, in the monetary sense.
    - crazy_horse 5y ago
      It'll get worse. This is a YC site so it's a dick thing to say but look at every YC company that got big. They might start out with nice ideas and bloviate a lot about bullshit (Reddit still has the tagline about staying for empathy - lol). But every single one of them gets worse after cashing out. They do not give a shit. It's always been about the money. If it weren't they'd have enough pride to make better software then they do and more than that enough pride to actually fix things instead of bloviating. Their business model ensures that they will continue to add features to a bloated and overmarketed project to people that don't know better. We better off? It's possible. But I know that watching their interactions here over the last past decade, when I had the chance, I made sure we didn't use Gitlab for some unis you've heard of and going forward I always will. I'll never get over their data loss incident. Not so much that it happened (though they should have had enough expertise around to make sure it never happened), but the reaction to it like it was just a funny mistake. I realized then that these guys haven't been in real small companies that could go bankrupt if they lose a chunk of data or they had and didn't realize how careless they were. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13542587 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13542587
      - klik99 5y ago
        I think it’s about being the dominant player or not, as a long time employee of a very very well known and large company once complained to me “We care about the user experience, but only when we’re not doing well”. Gitlab will continue to impress as long as GitHub exists - I’d start to worry if gitlab “wins”
- bevdecloud 5y ago
  I have been using it for a couple months. You are very correct. I guess when are as open as they are it kind of gets lost in translation. Hopefully becoming a shareholder in a truly public company is the push for us to fix these kinds of issues.
- alvarlagerlof 5y ago
  No notifications on the platform is a deal breaker for me.
  - jjeaff 5y ago
    Do you mean no push notifications? Because I get emails for stuff. The rest is integrated into our chat client, mattermost. I actually prefer using that as a centralized place for work notifications.
  - rmetzler 5y ago
    I see notifications for starting Gitlab CI pipelines in Google Chrome on MacOS. What kind of notifications do you want exactly? I would rather have less notifications, they distract me too much.
- Lorin 5y ago
  Took em' about 2-3 years to add the "What's new" link in the top menu bar since the issue was opened.
BelenusMordred 5y ago
> Gitlab is one of the pioneers of "remote-first" I once looked at their wages when I was in Asia, they wouldn't even cover my rent working full-time. Until they pay for skill rather than area I'm going to be a sceptic sorry, far better companies to work for.
- keerthiko 5y ago
  For all the work they have done in getting remote-first culture established for large corps, their salary protocol is pretty backward. Normalizing on employee locale adds so many assumptions about the life and lifestyle of the employee and their market that are somewhat unfair to incorporate into compensation. Our company is far smaller, but also been remote-first for almost a decade, and flat salary structure based on role (we pretty much have just IC, lead or junior) and fully independent of location was the best. Since we have two founders living in the Bay Area and in New York, two of the most expensive cities, a comfortable wage for those founders should be good enough for anyone anywhere. For our own simplicity, we aligned compensation on gross (pre-tax) pay, so the take-home is slightly different between regions.
  - golergka 5y ago
    There's nothing "fair" or "unfair" about salaries: it's just an open market. And their strategy is not a winning one. On my last remote job search, I encountered a few companies which were mimicking gitlab's approach (they actually said out loud that gitlab was where they got the idea). Needless to say, I accepted the offer from an American company which offered American salary instead. Three times as much as companies with "gitlab-like" policies offered me.
- nine_k 5y ago
  They apparently can find talent at their current rates. Good for them. But certainly there will be pressure on them and on all others, as US companies start to hire globally, and offer more-or-less US wages.
  - plafl 5y ago

INTPenis 5y ago

Yeah I absolutely support Gitlab and love seeing new projects use Gitlab over Github. But to be fair, they have a massive backlog of issues to fix. Basic issues too, like variables not expanding correctly in CI jobs, or Google not being able to index projects on gitlab.com unless there's another page already linking to it. I've been using Gitlab.com and Gitlab on-prem since 2013 and over the years I've found many of these bugs that I feel should be top priority instead of new features.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
reilly3000 5y ago
With their business model, a constant stream of new features is the only thing that pays the bills. Their paid tiers get the new features, and almost all of them eventually wind up in the open product. With a healthy IPO they should be resourced enough to put some extra hands on the backlog. +1 for prioritizing old tickets!
- sillysaurusx 5y ago
  I don’t really think that IPOing is about acquiring more resources. The point is to get rich. The resources are the means to do that, and everything else is a happy side effect. Hopefully, yes, they will choose to do as you say. But the tickets didn’t language because they were resource constrained. They languished because they were worthless, in the monetary sense.
  - crazy_horse 5y ago
    It'll get worse. This is a YC site so it's a dick thing to say but look at every YC company that got big. They might start out with nice ideas and bloviate a lot about bullshit (Reddit still has the tagline about staying for empathy - lol). But every single one of them gets worse after cashing out. They do not give a shit. It's always been about the money. If it weren't they'd have enough pride to make better software then they do and more than that enough pride to actually fix things instead of bloviating. Their business model ensures that they will continue to add features to a bloated and overmarketed project to people that don't know better. We better off? It's possible. But I know that watching their interactions here over the last past decade, when I had the chance, I made sure we didn't use Gitlab for some unis you've heard of and going forward I always will. I'll never get over their data loss incident. Not so much that it happened (though they should have had enough expertise around to make sure it never happened), but the reaction to it like it was just a funny mistake. I realized then that these guys haven't been in real small companies that could go bankrupt if they lose a chunk of data or they had and didn't realize how careless they were. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13542587 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13542587
    - klik99 5y ago
      I think it’s about being the dominant player or not, as a long time employee of a very very well known and large company once complained to me “We care about the user experience, but only when we’re not doing well”. Gitlab will continue to impress as long as GitHub exists - I’d start to worry if gitlab “wins”
bevdecloud 5y ago
I have been using it for a couple months. You are very correct. I guess when are as open as they are it kind of gets lost in translation. Hopefully becoming a shareholder in a truly public company is the push for us to fix these kinds of issues.
alvarlagerlof 5y ago
No notifications on the platform is a deal breaker for me.
- jjeaff 5y ago
  Do you mean no push notifications? Because I get emails for stuff. The rest is integrated into our chat client, mattermost. I actually prefer using that as a centralized place for work notifications.
- rmetzler 5y ago
  I see notifications for starting Gitlab CI pipelines in Google Chrome on MacOS. What kind of notifications do you want exactly? I would rather have less notifications, they distract me too much.
Lorin 5y ago
Took em' about 2-3 years to add the "What's new" link in the top menu bar since the issue was opened.

BelenusMordred 5y ago

> Gitlab is one of the pioneers of "remote-first" I once looked at their wages when I was in Asia, they wouldn't even cover my rent working full-time. Until they pay for skill rather than area I'm going to be a sceptic sorry, far better companies to work for.

keerthiko 5y ago
For all the work they have done in getting remote-first culture established for large corps, their salary protocol is pretty backward. Normalizing on employee locale adds so many assumptions about the life and lifestyle of the employee and their market that are somewhat unfair to incorporate into compensation. Our company is far smaller, but also been remote-first for almost a decade, and flat salary structure based on role (we pretty much have just IC, lead or junior) and fully independent of location was the best. Since we have two founders living in the Bay Area and in New York, two of the most expensive cities, a comfortable wage for those founders should be good enough for anyone anywhere. For our own simplicity, we aligned compensation on gross (pre-tax) pay, so the take-home is slightly different between regions.
- golergka 5y ago
  There's nothing "fair" or "unfair" about salaries: it's just an open market. And their strategy is not a winning one. On my last remote job search, I encountered a few companies which were mimicking gitlab's approach (they actually said out loud that gitlab was where they got the idea). Needless to say, I accepted the offer from an American company which offered American salary instead. Three times as much as companies with "gitlab-like" policies offered me.
nine_k 5y ago
They apparently can find talent at their current rates. Good for them. But certainly there will be pressure on them and on all others, as US companies start to hire globally, and offer more-or-less US wages.
- plafl 5y ago