Foundations

Sid has founded and retains leadership positions on two foundations: the GitLab Foundation and the Sijbrandij Foundation.

The GitLab Foundation is supporting people to grow their lifetime earnings through education, training, access to opportunities, and systems change on a global scale. Its vision is a world in which one million more people can afford a better life.

The Sijbrandij Foundation supports the exploration of new and under-resourced ways to address some of the world’s biggest issues and catalyze transformational change. Investments include new approaches to cancer treatment, the development of charter cities and local economies, thought-provoking interactive experiences, and new areas of research into human behavior.

Projects

In addition to his role as CEO of GitLab, Sid regularly creates and supports projects and organizations that address some of the world’s biggest challenges with scalable, systematic solutions. As an investor, Sid has devoted his resources to providing more paths to entrepreneurship, as well as improving and reimagining how we approach issues such as cancer treatment, solar energy, city development, philanthropy models, and how we engage with both art and technology. 

Founded by Sid Sijbrandij, Open Core Ventures (OCV) is a venture capital firm unlike any other, taking a new approach by starting commercial open-source software companies. Operating under the belief that all software should be open, and more people can become entrepreneurs, OCV identifies open-source software projects with traction, recruits passionate project founders and contributors, and launches new companies. OCV companies aim to create tangible value for the open-source community by providing access to resources and reducing the barrier to entrepreneurship. Its approach diverges from conventional venture capital because it starts companies and recruits founders—it does not invest in existing companies. OCV has started more than 10 companies around open-source projects, including Fleet and FlowFuse.

Art City, Inc. is a place for art to live, catalyzed by “The Most Famous Artist,” Matty Mo. Its mission is to work with artists, developers, and local governments to grow economies. Located along the historic Route 66 in Tucumcari, NM, this unique 40-acre sculpture park and glamping destination offers an immersive art experience in the heart of nature. The site features fourteen large-scale sculptures crafted by internationally renowned artists, making it an ideal backdrop for photography and a source of creative inspiration.

The Charter Cities Institute (CCI) is a nonprofit dedicated to building the ecosystem for charter cities—new cities granted a special jurisdiction to create a new governance system and enact policy reforms. CCI is empowering new cities with better governance to lift tens of millions of people out of poverty. 

With a mission to unlock new sources of funding for public goods and charity, Glo Dollar is a USDC-like stablecoin: 100% backed, always 1:1 redeemable, US regulated. On top of all of that, it enables people to fund their favorite public goods. Glo Dollar donates its profits to charities that its users choose. They vote on fighting extreme poverty, strengthening Web3 public goods, or combating climate change, among other causes. 

Incentives affect every aspect of human society—they determine how individuals are motivated and choose to approach shared goals. Improving their design can shape better outcomes in fields that are central to humanity’s flourishing. Led by Director Jana Gallus, the Center for Incentive Design is a research initiative that builds a community of interdisciplinary scholars, practitioners, and policy makers who are passionate about using incentives to better the world. It promotes and engages in audacious attempts to improve outcomes at scale. It spurs interdisciplinary research on incentive design to drive progress in three key areas: health, education, and housing.

Through interactive exhibits and thought-provoking art pieces, the Misalignment Museum helps people understand the opportunities and implications for how AI is shaping the world we live in. Its goal is to elevate awareness and discussion that lead to a hopeful and vibrant future. Located in the Chase Center in San Francisco, the museum also hosts private events, tours, team offsites, and school field trips.

OpenResearch is a nonprofit research organization with a startup mentality. Its focus is on pivotal, unanswered questions, drawing on the strengths of traditional academic research with the operational experiences of Silicon Valley’s startup community, to fill knowledge gaps. It is an independent research organization that provides scientific freedom for researchers and leads with questions, not conclusions. It partners with individuals, nonprofits, and academic institutions to achieve and communicate the most comprehensive and nuanced outcomes.

Less than 2% of administered drugs make it to their desired location in the body. What if cancer drugs could be activated only where they are needed? Shasqi is pioneering a new way of treating cancer through next generation tumor targeting: Their proprietary approach uses 2022 Nobel Prize-winning technology—click chemistry—to activate cancer therapies at the tumor. Shasqi is the first company to use click chemistry in human patients. The treatment separates tumor targeting from the payload, and relies on chemistry, not biology, for activation. This unprecedented flexibility can lead to greater activity and lower toxicity than has been previously possible. 

Solar is the future of energy. Perovskites are the future of solar. Founded by leading perovskite scientists from Stanford, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Swift Solar is a global team of innovators, technologists, and manufacturing experts—visionaries and builders who believe that unlocking the full potential of solar power can effectively stop climate change. Swift Solar is pioneering solar technology that is more cost-effective, efficient, and scalable than any other solar product currently available.

Founded in 2005, U-Boat Worx has been at the forefront of innovation in the design and manufacture of submersibles for private, research, and commercial use. With a focus on safety, performance, and comfort, U-Boat Worx continues to revolutionize the way people explore the underwater world.