THE GITLAB JOURNEY
Celebrating MJ — First Employee, 14 Extraordinary Years
2012 — 2026
First Commit
Oct 2011
Dmitriy Zaporozhets makes the first commit to GitLab as an open-source project in Ukraine.
MJ Joins as First Employee
Jan 2012
MJ becomes GitLab's very first employee, beginning a 14-year journey that will shape the company.
Sid Discovers GitLab
Aug 2012
Sytse "Sid" Sijbrandij discovers GitLab, begins contributing, and launches GitLab.com as a hosted service.
GitLab CI Created
Nov 2012
First version of GitLab CI enables continuous integration alongside the code repository.
GitLab Scary Logo
Jan 2013
GitLab realizes it is not good at branding and marketing.
Summit!
Oct 2013
Summit in Novi Sad, Serbia.
GitLab Inc. Incorporated
Jan 2014
GitLab is officially incorporated as a company. Over 1 million projects hosted by year-end.
Y Combinator
Mar 2015
GitLab is accepted into Y Combinator (Winter 2015 batch), receiving seed funding and mentorship.
Series A — $4M
Sep 2015
GitLab raises $4 million in Series A funding. Public handbook establishes transparency-first culture.
Summit!
Oct 2015
Summit in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Summit!
May 2016
Summit in Austin, Texas, USA.
Series B — $20M
Sep 2016
Raises $20M from August Capital, Khosla Ventures, and Y Combinator. Over 100,000 organizations using GitLab.
GitLab World Tour in Amsterdam
Nov 2016
Where Bob and Marin meet IRL for the first time.
Summit!
Jan 2017
Summit in Cancun, Mexico.
Database deleted
Jan 2017
Team member X accidentally deletes the production database and livestreams restoration.
Gitter Acquired
Mar 2017
GitLab acquires Gitter; AndrewN enters the picture.
The Master Plan Complete
Sep 2017
GitLab completes the Master Plan vision — shipping every stage from idea to production.
Summit!
Oct 2017
Summit in Crete, Greece.
Series C — $20M
Oct 2017
Raises $20M led by GV (Google Ventures). Auto DevOps launches in GitLab 10.0.
Coworking Utrecht
Jan 2018
First of the monthly coworking days in Utrecht.
Gemnasium Acquired
Jan 2018
GitLab acquires Gemnasium, a dependency vulnerability scanning company, accelerating the security roadmap.
Summit!
Aug 2018
Summit in Cape Town, South Africa.
Series D — $100M 🦄
Sep 2018
Raises $100M led by ICONIQ Capital. GitLab reaches $1.1B valuation — unicorn status. 350+ employees across 40+ countries.
Delivery Team
Oct 2018
Delivery Team created to streamline releases and create a better experience for GitLab.com users.
GitLab.com GCP migration complete
Apr 2019
GitLab.com successfully migrated from Azure to GCP.
Summit!
May 2019
Summit in New Orleans, USA.
Scalability Team
Jul 2019
Scalability Team created by Marin, the first team to combine SRE and BE talents in a single team
Series E — $268M
Sep 2019
Raises $268M led by Goldman Sachs and ICONIQ at $2.75B valuation. 800+ employees across 55 countries.
Single GitLab codebase
Sep 2019
gitlab-org/gitlab-ce and gitlab-org/gitlab-ee are joined into gitlab-org/gitlab.
All-Remote Pioneer
Mar 2020
COVID-19 validates GitLab's all-remote model. The world follows what GitLab has done since day one.
1,000+ Employees
Sep 2020
GitLab surpasses 1,000 team members — all working remotely across the globe.
GitLab Private - start
Dec 2020
First GitLab 'Private' discussions
GitLab Private - technical scoping
Feb 2021
Oh the optimism of youth.
GitLab P̶r̶i̶v̶a̶t̶e̶ Dedicated
Apr 2021
Team created by Marin, project bolted from the gate; horsing around.
Promotion 🎉
May 2021
Marin is promoted from Senior Engineering Manager to Director of Infrastructure.
UnReview Acquired
Jun 2021
GitLab's first ML/AI acquisition — automating code review with machine learning.
IPO on Nasdaq 🚀
Oct 2021
GitLab goes public (GTLB) at $77/share with ~$11B valuation. A landmark moment for the all-remote company.
Opstrace Acquired
Dec 2021
GitLab acquires Opstrace, an open-source observability solution, expanding the DevOps platform.
A huge 10-year milestone!
Sep 2022
Marin completes 10 years at GitLab. Celebrates the achievement with a much-deserved break.
New CTO
Jan 2023
Jörg Heilig joins as intermin CTO.
GitLab 16.0 — AI-Powered
May 2023
AI-Powered DevSecOps Platform launches with AI Code Suggestions and Remote Development Workspaces.
Promotion 🎉
May 2023
Marin is promoted from Director to Senior Director of Infrastructure.
Dedicated Launch
Jun 2023
Dedicated goes live! 6 weeks ahead of schedule.
Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader
Jun 2023
Named a Leader in the inaugural Gartner Magic Quadrant for DevOps Platforms.
London Meet up
Oct 2023
Team members from around London gather for mini golf and drinks.
New CTO
Jan 2024
Sabrina Farmer joins as CTO. The bar is set for what great engineering leadership looks like.
Summit!
Mar 2024
Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
GitLab 17.0
May 2024
Ships CI/CD Catalog (GA), AI Impact Analytics Dashboard, and Duo Chat powered by Claude.
CTO Leadership Offsite
Aug 2024
Sabrina gathers her directs, plus guests in Boston. Boston Common is the perfect location for the debrief.
Duo Enterprise GA
Aug 2024
GitLab Duo Enterprise AI suite reaches general availability.
DevEx joins Infrastructure Platforms
Nov 2024
Leadership changes bring DevEx into Infrastructure Platforms. A new chapter begins.
New CEO, New Chapter
Dec 2024
Bill Staples appointed CEO. Sid transitions to Executive Chair. 10,000+ customers, $750M+ revenue.
Promotion 🎉
Feb 2025
Marin is promoted from Senior Director of Infrastructure to VP of Engineering, Infrastructure Platforms.
100th Grand Review!
Mar 2025
Platforms Grand Review is renewed for another season! The critically acclaimed show hits 100 episodes, with hosts Marin & Fabian going on to record over 140 together
Infrastructure Platforms leadership offsite
Apr 2025
Product and Engineering leads descend on Frankfurt to explore first-team culture and go-karting!
GitLab 18.0 — AI-Native
May 2025
AI-native capabilities built into Premium and Ultimate tiers. FedRAMP Moderate Authorization achieved.
Two Geo migrations nailed
Jul 2025
A Landmrk achievement for Dedicated and a transition point for MJ and Florbela.
Gartner Leader — 3rd Year
Sep 2025
Named Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for DevOps Platforms for the third consecutive year.
GitLab publishes official SLA of 99.9% for hosted SaaS
Dec 2025
High availability promised to all. An achievement one year in the making.
Duo Agent Platform GA
Jan 2026
GitLab Duo Agent Platform reaches general availability. 170+ consecutive monthly releases.
Frankfurt offsites
Jan 2026
Dedicated and MJ Directs offsites in Frankfurt. A fitting farewell for MJ.
MJ — 14 Years 🎉
Mar 2026
MJ celebrates 14 incredible years at GitLab. From first employee to shaping a global company with 2,500+ team members across 65+ countries.