Thread by @snird

To celebrate Gitlab S-1 filing:

My thoughts on why they are in a great position to grow steadily, and why their moat might be deeper than seems

$GTLB 👇🧵

Even though their name has "git", they are far more than a git service provider. They started at that, but don't let it fool you.

Gitlab is a full software development process service.
- Devops tools
- Project management
- Deployment
- Security
- Code management
- And more..

Their ability to provide a full service for any development process is what drives my thesis on their ability to grow, and on the depth of their moat.

Let me explain.

Developers hate moving around between tools that have limited communication ability, so they lack depth.

Ask every developer that had to reference github PRs in their JIRA ticket.

It sucks.

That's why so many open source projects love github -
the minimal project management, "issues", is embedded in github such that referencing code bits is trivial.

Not only trivial - but have a 2-way linkage, so you can see any reference from both sides. Incredibly useful.

But what does it have to do with Gitlab? this is a github thing.

Well, Gitlab does that, but for more things, focused on commercial needs.

With Gitlab you can have a project management system that can kick the ass of industry veterans like JIRA.

So already, you have a project management tool that integrates as close as possible to your code that is superior.

Great for companies.

But add to that all the devops tools.

Instead of going out and back for a CI/CD tool, container registry, or anything like that - you have it all in one place.

Again, closer to the code. So the integration is superior.

But that's where it gets really interesting:

It not only integrates in a cool way with the code but with the superior project management tool built-in!

That is a kind of convenience that is hard to give up once you get used to it.
Which can explain their 152% dollar retention.

Now, take this idea, and multiply.
They have great monitoring tools.
Security tools.
Documentation tools.

And so on and so on.

And what's amazing to me:

All their tools are great.
They haven't always been great, they sucked at one point.
But through iteration, and from personal experience, I can tell you: they are great.

Their structure is good for big companies, growing up into their tools.

That's why I believe that as years will go by, more companies that now just start with Gitlab, will grow bigger into the product.

I believe Gitlab's current growth is sustainable for many, many years.