The business of growing and monetizing an open source product | Ashley Kramer (GitLab CMO/CSO)

Ashley Kramer is the CMO and CSO at GitLab, a publicly listed DevSecOps platform. Ashley took a unique path into her CMO role. She started out in software engineering before becoming a product leader, and eventually, a marketer. Most recently, Ashley was the CPO and CMO at Sisense, a data analytics company last valued at over $1b.

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In today’s episode we discuss:

• How GitLab layered a commercial model on top of open source roots
• GitLab’s main marketing metrics
• Examples, benefits, and downsides of a transparent company culture
• How GitLab serves enterprise customers, and a passionate developer community
• Unique marketing lessons from working in an open core company
• An example of a recent marketing campaign

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Where to find Brett Berson:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/brettberson
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/

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Where to find Ashley Kramer:

• Twitter/x: https://twitter.com/ashleyekramer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyekramer/

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Where to find First Round Capital:

• Website: https://firstround.com/
• First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
• This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast

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Referenced:

• CISO: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/what-is-ciso.html
• DevSecOps: https://about.gitlab.com/topics/devsecops/
• E-Group: https://about.gitlab.com/company/team/e-group/
• GitLab: https://gitlab.com
• GitLab legal team’s SAFE framework: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/legal/safe-framework/
• GitLab’s open core business model: https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/stewardship/
• GitLab’s open source employee handbook: https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/
• GitLab’s open source marketing handbook: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/
• GitLab’s open source remote handbook: https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/guide/
• Sid Sijbrandij, CEO of GitLab: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sijbrandij/
• Tableau: https://www.tableau.com/

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:34) Marketing in closed vs open source companies

(07:40) The role of marketing at GitLab

(09:23) The tensions of being a commercial, open source company

(12:36) Advice for nurturing community and dealing with disagreements

(15:02) GitLab's main marketing metrics

(20:26) The thinking behind GitLab’s org structure, in and around marketing

(28:19) Selling to enterprise as an open core company

(29:53) The difference between open core and open source

(30:39) Serving many different customer segments

(35:10) GitLab's planning process

(39:22) An example of GitLab’s marketing in practice

(42:12) How marketing collaborates with product

(45:55) Marketing lessons from working in an open core company

(49:46) Examples of GitLab's focus on transparency

(52:22) Why GitLab is transparent about their marketing

(54:59) 2 examples of GitLab's uniquely transparent culture

(58:35) The downsides of being a transparent company

(60:13) GitLab's meeting structure and cadence

(62:04) Benefits of having an engineering and product background as CMO

(71:09) People who made an outsized impact on Ashley's career