When Sid Sijbrandij first saw GitLab in 2012, he admired how easy it made collaboration. At that time GitLab was an open-source project created by programmer Dmitriy Zaporozhet, also known as DZ, the year before as a tool for his own team to use. To Sid, it seemed so natural that a collaboration tool for programmers was open source, so that anyone using it could see the code and contribute to it. A self-taught Ruby programmer himself, Sid checked out the source code and was impressed with both its quality and the number of contributions it had received—more than 300 in the first year.

True to the spirit of open source and permissionless innovation, Sid announced on Hacker News that he would start GitLab.com. When he returned to his computer later that evening, there were loads of replies and soon hundreds of people signed up for the waitlist. That began Sid’s journey as CEO and co-founder with DZ, who would join him at the company the following year. GitLab Inc. was incorporated in 2014. 

As CEO, Sid has led the company’s growth globally—GitLab now has more than 2,100 team members across more than 60 countries and more than 40 million registered users. In 2021, he led the company’s IPO, taking GitLab public (NASDAQ: GTLB). 

What started in 2011 as an open-source project to help one team of programmers collaborate is now the platform millions of people use to deliver software faster and more efficiently, while strengthening security and compliance. Among its many awards and accolades, GitLab is recognized for its innovative organizational and operating philosophy. It is one of the world’s largest fully remote companies—there are no headquarters or satellite offices. The company was founded to be all-remote and remains completely virtual.

GitLab’s mission is to enable everyone to contribute to and co-create the software that powers our world.

Visit GitLab to learn more about the company’s mission, values, and how teams work together to deliver results for customers around the world.