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Sid Sibrandi, the co-founder and CEO of GitLab, discusses the journey of building an interesting business and taking an unconventional approach to transparency and remote work. The conversation covers topics such as the importance of building a good story, the founding of GitLab and its evolution, the concept of open core, and the unique challenges and benefits of being a remote-first company.
GitLab places a strong emphasis on transparency, both internally and externally. The company's commitment to transparency is reflected in its open development process, where contributors are encouraged to make suggestions and engage in decision-making. This approach extends to the sharing of information, such as product roadmaps, business strategies, and even incidents like data loss. The aim is to foster trust, accountability, and open communication within the organization.
GitLab has been a pioneer in remote work, leveraging its remote-first approach to build a global team of over 1,500 employees across 60 countries. Sid discusses the advantages of remote work, including access to global talent, flexibility, and increased individual productivity. He also explains the importance of creating a shared reality and fostering informal communication in remote teams. Sid highlights the potential pitfalls of hybrid models and the need for strong leadership and intentional practices to ensure inclusivity and effective communication.
GitLab values speed and encourages decentralized decision-making. The company adopts a 'disagree and commit' approach, allowing individuals and teams to voice their opinions while granting autonomy to the directly responsible individuals (DRIs) to make final decisions. GitLab fosters a culture of accountability and encourages everyone to take action, emphasizing that it is preferable to make a quick decision, even if there is a chance of being wrong, rather than delaying and losing potential opportunities.
GitLab has developed a results-oriented approach to performance measurement, utilizing key performance indicators (KPIs) and objectives and key results (OKRs) across various departments. Engineering, for example, measures the number of impactful changes made to the software that directly benefit customers. By focusing on measurable outcomes, GitLab promotes transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement. However, measuring results in all areas can be challenging, and the company continually iterates and refines its measurement framework.
In the 44th episode GitLab Co-Founder and CEO Sid Sijbrandij discusses the importance of transparency both within a company and publicly and the philosophies of open source and success. Plus why he’s such an advocate for remote work and the troubles with hybrid offices.
(0:00) Introducing Sid Sijbrandij
(13:43) Corporate Transparency
(22:03) Remote work
(25:13) Philosophies for success
(26:55) Team ops
(32:37) Human elements of remote work
(36:14) Hybrid work
(39:07) Global talent pool
(43:10) Measuring productivity
(50:08) The shadow program
(54:14) Staying in the Bay Area
(56:57) Situational leadership
(1:00:08) Outro
Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz
Music: Griff Lawson
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/three-cartoon-avatars/id1606770839
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About the Show
A Saturday morning podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett (Partner and Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures) covering the tech news with his friends and other people with industry expertise.
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Sam Dewees and JR Bohannon
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
🎙 Listen to the show
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-logan-bartlett-show/id1606770839
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1
Follow on Socials
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow
🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow
🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow
About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.
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