Sytse Sijbrandij of Gitlab: ‘Focus on growth key to success’
September this year Gitlab announced that it had raised a $20 million Series B round led by August Capital. Existing investors Khosla Ventures and Y-Combinator also participated. In this HitEnter video interview, the CEO of Gitlab Sytse Sijbrandij talks about why he decided to change from a ‘product company to a growth company.’ Why he thinks that Dutch startups don’t lack ambition, but need a better supporting ecosystem and how he tries to not only be open in code but also as a company. Sijbrandij talks furthermore about:
- Why he started Gitlab;
- The differences between Y-combinator and Dutch and European accelerators;
- How he managed to raise millions of dollars in Series A funding in just 6 months;
- What the difference is between Gitlab and Github;
- Why Y-combinator played a pivotal role in helping the company grow as fast as it did.
If you’re into open source and trying to grow your startup this interview is time well-spend. You’re going to learn a lot. Enjoy!
Note: this interview was recorded long before the latest funding round of $20 million in september 2016.