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Sid Sijbrandij

Co-founder & Executive Chair, GitLab Inc. · 2 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveinvestor@sytses ↗LinkedIn ↗sytse.com ↗

Sijbrandij co-founded GitLab in 2012, pioneering an all-remote workforce and open-core model to take the DevSecOps platform public on Nasdaq in 2021 before transitioning from CEO to Executive Chair in 2024. Beyond GitLab, he established Open Core Ventures to back open-source founders and launched the AI coding platform Kilo Code.

46statements → 19claims → 15claims resolved → 73%fully supported → 4.04/5average certainty → 2/5average debate potential → 4.5/5argument clarity · the sources → 7said about them ↓

11 supported 2 partly supported 2 contradicted 4 not checkable as stated how the 19 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

4 predictions · 15 assertions · 1 opinion · 20 insights · 6 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 19 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 15 are resolved, and 4 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Sid argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Prediction Held up
Sid Sijbrandij: Returning completely to in-office work is a pipe dream
“Also, I think it's a pipe dream that we're going to go back to completely being in the office. Some people are going to be remote. So focus more time on making that work.”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 6:11 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Sid Sijbrandij: Less than 10% of workers return when offices reopen
“When companies open back their offices, less than 10% of the people go back. They are longing for that informal communication.”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 6:25 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
64% certainty 4
93% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.5 / 5 directness 4.9 · coherence 4.8 · precision 4.4 · compression 4

answered every one of 25 assessed questions directly

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

247 words/min while actually speaking · 20.7 um and uh per 1k words · 22.4 false starts per 1k · 44.1% of pauses land inside a clause

English is their second language (first language: Dutch). These numbers measure fluency in English. They do not measure thought; the argument clarity score above is read from substance alone.

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 4,875 words across 1 episode of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 2 rated episodes:

host pushback ▾ 3/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10
setup questions received 70%

Everything Sid Sijbrandij said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Sid Sijbrandij: Remote work scales better as a company grows larger
“In fact, remote works better the bigger you are. Like, if you're seven people, it's probably better to be in a room together, if that's practical. If you're 1500 people, what's the advantage? You can't be in the same room anymore. You can hardly be in the same…”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 3:10 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Contradicted
Sid Sijbrandij: Less than 10% of workers return when offices reopen
“When companies open back their offices, less than 10% of the people go back. They are longing for that informal communication.”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 6:25 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Sid Sijbrandij: Top remote talent at hybrid companies will leave for all-remote
“The hybrid that doesn't work is some people are at the office and some people are remote. We think the most talented people in those companies that work remote will leave for a company that's all remote because they want to be on the same level as everybody el…”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 7:54 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Partly supported
Sid Sijbrandij: GitLab strictly bans presentations during internal company meetings
“At GitLab, you're not allowed to present in meetings.”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 9:29 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Sid Sijbrandij: DIY DevOps with custom tool integrations is dead
“That DIY DevOps is dead. Like the area of selecting 10 best in class solutions for DevOps and then having custom integrations between them that you maintain that is no longer working. It's both not leading to a good outcome and it's way too much effort.”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 37:03 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Sijbrandij: Public Roadmaps Net Positive Because Building Customer Needs Trumps Secrecy
“But all in all, it's been a very positive thing for us because the most important thing about your roadmap is not that it's a secret, but that it's correct that you're making the stuff that customers want.”
Sid Sijbrandij Jul 19, 2019 ▶ 10:37 20VC: Gitlab Founder, Sid Sijbrandji on Lessons From Scaling from 400 to 1,000 People in 1 Year, Why You Have To Have A Low Level Of Shame On The Product You Release & The Secret To Making Remote Work So Effectively At Scale
Insight
Sijbrandij: Releasing incomplete software with low shame enables community product flywheels
“In a very small iteration, so sometimes the stuff we release, we have a low level of shame about them. They're not complete, and we know it, but it allows people from the community to come in and contribute to it, and by contributing to it, they make it accept…”
Sid Sijbrandij Jul 19, 2019 ▶ 15:27 20VC: Gitlab Founder, Sid Sijbrandji on Lessons From Scaling from 400 to 1,000 People in 1 Year, Why You Have To Have A Low Level Of Shame On The Product You Release & The Secret To Making Remote Work So Effectively At Scale
Insight
Sijbrandij: Operating an all-remote company is easier than managing a hybrid workplace
“I think being all remote is a lot easier than being hybrid. Where part of your people are co-located and part are not.”
Sid Sijbrandij Jul 19, 2019 ▶ 18:38 20VC: Gitlab Founder, Sid Sijbrandji on Lessons From Scaling from 400 to 1,000 People in 1 Year, Why You Have To Have A Low Level Of Shame On The Product You Release & The Secret To Making Remote Work So Effectively At Scale
Prediction Held up
Sid Sijbrandij: Returning completely to in-office work is a pipe dream
“Also, I think it's a pipe dream that we're going to go back to completely being in the office. Some people are going to be remote. So focus more time on making that work.”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 6:11 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Sid Sijbrandij: Laziness is often a symptom of perfectionism, not underperformance
“I think laziness is almost a shortcut. That's too easy. Like what's going on in their life. And that might not be an excuse to do it, but. I think most of the times when I'm lazy, it's because I have two of a high bar for the output and the end result, and I p…”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 18:29 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Sid Sijbrandij: Pitch a specific 10-minute problem instead of generic mentorship
“I think what's really, what I see sometimes is that people reach out and ask whether you want to be their mentor. And I think that's Unlikely to be a yes for me, but I think also from other people. I think you want to kind of, you want to start small, iterate …”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 22:14 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Sid Sijbrandij: Board members should only ask questions, not direct operations
“As a board member, you should really only be asking questions and getting informed and”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 30:31 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Sid Sijbrandij tested Series B investors with mock board strategy discussions
“And what I did, for example, in our B round, I kind of had Calling it a mock board meeting is too far, but I went through our strategy and kind of waited for them to kind of wait it. We discussed and asked them to add value and then what you get back, how that…”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 35:26 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Sijbrandij: Majority of GitLab revenue comes from self-hosted deployments
“The majority of our revenue is still coming from self-hosted.”
Sid Sijbrandij Jul 19, 2019 ▶ 5:17 20VC: Gitlab Founder, Sid Sijbrandji on Lessons From Scaling from 400 to 1,000 People in 1 Year, Why You Have To Have A Low Level Of Shame On The Product You Release & The Secret To Making Remote Work So Effectively At Scale
Insight
Sijbrandij: Companies suffer more from internal strategy secrecy than competitor awareness
“Yeah, I think a lot of companies are kind of hesitant to articulate and disseminate their strategy to make it public or to even share it within the company. And there's benefits from your competitors not knowing your strategy, but I've seen a lot more companie…”
Sid Sijbrandij Jul 19, 2019 ▶ 17:32 20VC: Gitlab Founder, Sid Sijbrandji on Lessons From Scaling from 400 to 1,000 People in 1 Year, Why You Have To Have A Low Level Of Shame On The Product You Release & The Secret To Making Remote Work So Effectively At Scale
Assertion Supported
Sijbrandij: GitLab pays remote employees location-based rates, not uniform global salaries
“We pay people differently. We have a blog post about it, why we pay people local rates.”
Sid Sijbrandij Jul 19, 2019 ▶ 20:02 20VC: Gitlab Founder, Sid Sijbrandji on Lessons From Scaling from 400 to 1,000 People in 1 Year, Why You Have To Have A Low Level Of Shame On The Product You Release & The Secret To Making Remote Work So Effectively At Scale
Insight
Sid Sijbrandij: Open-source projects should monetize when paying buyers request features
“So if the people asking for features are people that can pay for them, it's probably good to start monetizing.”
Sid Sijbrandij Jul 19, 2019 ▶ 21:41 20VC: Gitlab Founder, Sid Sijbrandji on Lessons From Scaling from 400 to 1,000 People in 1 Year, Why You Have To Have A Low Level Of Shame On The Product You Release & The Secret To Making Remote Work So Effectively At Scale
Insight
Sid Sijbrandij: Software shipping should fix deadlines and reduce feature scope
“We always say that time is fixed, and then the scope is variable, so great, if you have a hard time meeting the deadline, just cut down the scope, do less, and I think that's been very great, so just stick to your deadlines.”
Sid Sijbrandij Jul 19, 2019 ▶ 21:53 20VC: Gitlab Founder, Sid Sijbrandji on Lessons From Scaling from 400 to 1,000 People in 1 Year, Why You Have To Have A Low Level Of Shame On The Product You Release & The Secret To Making Remote Work So Effectively At Scale
Insight
Sid Sijbrandij: Time zones are the biggest obstacle to remote work
“The hardest thing about remote is time zones, and to overcome time zones, you need to work asynchronously, but that's very, very hard.”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 8:33 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Sid Sijbrandij: GitLab lists over 17 transparency exceptions, including salaries and M&A
“Because we're transparent by default, we have the longest list of things that aren't transparent. So if you Google GitLab communication, you'll find a long list. I think it's over 17 items of things that aren't transparent, and that includes salaries, that inc…”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 12:36 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Sid Sijbrandij: Leaders should separate feedback reception from feedback evaluation
“Feedback doesn't have to be correct in order for you to welcome it. Like it, there's two phases. There's just being thankful that someone's giving feedback and then you decide what to what to accept.”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 14:38 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Sid Sijbrandij: Synchronous communication is best for urgent, broad group projects
“If something is really important and has to happen really fast, and it includes a wide group where you don't, where not everyone has the context, I think synchronous communication is better.”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 21:21 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Sid Sijbrandij: Board members are a founder's boss, not their mentors
“Board members are not mentors per se. They're your boss, which is very different, but still there's an enormous amount of things you can learn.”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 23:24 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Sid Sijbrandij: GitLab limits live board meeting presentations to two minutes
“Now at GitLab, we've taken that to a bit of an extreme where we send video clips of us presenting the slide deck up front, and we do, if we do presentations, it's like two minutes.”
Sid Sijbrandij Mar 20, 2022 ▶ 28:30 Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Show 22statements(22 left)

The other half of the tape: Sid Sijbrandij's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 6 times in 4 episodes on 20VC. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Tristan Handy 2Harry Stebbings 2Tom Hulme 1Jason Lemkin 1

Statements about Sid Sijbrandij, by other people (1)

Assertion Supported
GitLab Scaled Remote Team to Over 762 People Across 55 Countries
“Sid has scaled the team to over 762 team members across 55 countries, a fully remote team”
Harry Stebbings Jul 19, 2019 ▶ 0:43 20VC: Gitlab Founder, Sid Sijbrandji on Lessons From Scaling from 400 to 1,000 People in 1 Year, Why You Have To Have A Low Level Of Shame On The Product You Release & The Secret To Making Remote Work So Effectively At Scale

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0011212020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions
0112020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
0010.5212020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2024 1 mention in 1 episode
2022 2 mentions in 1 episode
2020 2 mentions in 1 episode

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Sid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC · 20VC Mar 20, 2022 25m
20VC: Gitlab Founder, Sid Sijbrandji on Lessons From Scaling from 400 to 1,000 People in 1 Jul 19, 2019 14m
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