The business of growing and monetizing an open source product | Ashley Kramer (GitLab CMO/CSO)
In Depth
Structuring and Format of the Weekly Core Marketing Meeting
The structure and format of the CEO's weekly core marketing meeting, where all direct reports come together for open discussions, updates, and brainstorming.
Ashley Kramer is the CMO and CSO at GitLab, a publicly listed DevSecOps platform. Ashley took a unique path into her CMO role. She started out in software engineering before becoming a product leader, and eventually, a marketer. Most recently, Ashley was the CPO and CMO at Sisense, a data analytics company last valued at over $1b.
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In today’s episode we discuss:
- How GitLab layered a commercial model on top of open source roots
- GitLab’s main marketing metrics
- Examples, benefits, and downsides of a transparent company culture
- How GitLab serves enterprise customers, and a passionate developer community
- Unique marketing lessons from working in an open core company
- An example of a recent marketing campaign
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Where to find Brett Berson:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/brettberson
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
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Where to find Ashley Kramer:
- Twitter/x: https://twitter.com/ashleyekramer
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyekramer/
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Where to find First Round Capital:
- Website: https://firstround.com/
- First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
- This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
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Referenced:
- CISO: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/what-is-ciso.html
- DevSecOps: https://about.gitlab.com/topics/devsecops/
- E-Group: https://about.gitlab.com/company/team/e-group/
- GitLab: https://gitlab.com
- GitLab legal team’s SAFE framework: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/legal/safe-framework/
- GitLab’s open core business model: https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/stewardship/
- GitLab’s open source employee handbook: https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/
- GitLab’s open source marketing handbook: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/
- GitLab’s open source remote handbook: https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/guide/
- Sid Sijbrandij, CEO of GitLab: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sijbrandij/
- Tableau: https://www.tableau.com/
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(02:34) Marketing in closed vs open source companies
(07:40) The role of marketing at GitLab
(09:23) The tensions of being a commercial, open source company
(12:36) Advice for nurturing community and dealing with disagreements
(15:02) GitLab's main marketing metrics
(20:26) The thinking behind GitLab’s org structure, in and around marketing
(28:19) Selling to enterprise as an open core company
(29:53) The difference between open core and open source
(30:39) Serving many different customer segments
(35:10) GitLab's planning process
(39:22) An example of GitLab’s marketing in practice
(42:12) How marketing collaborates with product
(45:55) Marketing lessons from working in an open core company
(49:46) Examples of GitLab's focus on transparency
(52:22) Why GitLab is transparent about their marketing
(54:59) 2 examples of GitLab's uniquely transparent culture
(58:35) The downsides of being a transparent company
(60:13) GitLab's meeting structure and cadence
(62:04) Benefits of having an engineering and product background as CMO
(71:09) People who made an outsized impact on Ashley's career
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