GitLab is about 18 months out from its very public goal of an IPO. Now, it's adding two new board members who can help guide the $1.1 billion code collaboration startup to the finish line.
Last week, GitLab announced that Sue Bostrom, former executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Cisco, and David Hornik, general partner at August Capital, have joined its board of directors.
"We bring a real passion for the technology and the company and excitement about that and an engagement with the company to help push things to the next level," Bostrom told Business Insider. "It's a gift to work with a founder and CEO like Sid [Sijbrandij]...I really enjoy helping that kind of individual with so much talent and so much vision take his thoughts and company to the next level."
GitLab has some big goals: Even as it preps for that November 2020 IPO, it wants to hit 1,000 employees by the end of the year, up from 700 today. This comes as GitLab faces ever-tougher competition from GitHub, which Microsoft purchased last year for $7.5 billion. Both companies promise a smarter, more efficient way for developers to work together on larger software projects.
Both Bostrom and Hornik have served on several company boards, including ones that went public during their tenure there, they believe they can provide guidance and identify gaps as GitLab faces these challenges.
"It's an exciting company," Hornik told Business Insider. "It's a different company. It's an explosive company. I couldn't be more excited about being big investors and cheerleaders for the company."
Their journey to GitLab
Previously, Bostrom served on the boards of Marketo and Rocket Fuel, both companies she helped take public. She says she was honored to be asked to join GitLab's board because of its "phenomenal market community."
Bostrom first heard about the opportunity through investor Matt Jacobson, general partner at ICONIQ Strategic Partners – a GitLab investor — and she says she brings to the board her experience in scaling high-growth companies.
As for Hornik, he started his career as an attorney before moving to Silicon Valley in the late 1990s and then transitioning into the venture capital business. He has now worked at August Capital for 20 years, investing in enterprise startups.
For example, he invested in Splunk when it was only "three people and an idea," and he sat on the board through its IPO in 2012. Today, Splunk is valued at over $18 billion on the public markets. He's also on the board of Fastly, which just went public in May.
Hornik first heard about GitLab through Y Combinator, the famed startup mentorship program from which the company once graduated. He recalls that at the time, he thought their approach made sense, but he still had questions. After GitLab raised another round of financing, his firm jumped in, and later on, led the series B round.
"When you see a company like GitLab that is satisfying customers' needs with such great expertise and is creating so much value for their customers and growing so quickly, this magic and just being a part of that experience is always amazing," Hornik said.
A 'broader perspective'
Hornik says there's value in having been through the IPO process multiple times before. And since he and Bostrom have served on several boards, he says they bring a "broader perspective."
"As a level-one matter, we're focused on making sure Sid has the wisdom and advice to continue to grow the organization," Hornik said. "...As someone who has for the past 20 years lived and breathed the idea that tech companies can become big and interesting, big and important, I think that perspective and experience is valuable."
Bostrom was also interested by the idea that GitLab's workforce was completely remote. When she talked to employees, they said that their efficiently went up dramatically, and they liked that they can live in certain locations for personal or family reasons, instead of having to move just to be in an office.
"I think this is clearly something that is revolutionary," Bostrom said. "All the employees are on a level playing field in terms of interacting with each other in this virtual workplace."
