SynBioBeta Speaker
Sid Sijbrandij
Co-founder & Exec. Chair
GitLab
May 2026, SynBioBeta
Speaker
Sid Sijbrandij (pronounced “see-brandy”) is the Co-founder and Executive Chair of GitLab Inc., the most comprehensive AI-powered DevSecOps platform. He also served as CEO from 2012-2024. GitLab’s single application helps organizations deliver software faster and more efficiently while strengthening their security and compliance. Sid’s career path has been anything but traditional. He spent four years building recreational submarines for U-Boat Worx and while at Ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid he worked on the Legis project, which developed several innovative web applications to aid lawmaking. He first saw Ruby code in 2007 and loved it so much that he taught himself how to program. In 2012, as a Ruby programmer, he encountered GitLab and discovered his passion for open source. Soon after, Sid commercialized GitLab, and by 2015 he led the company through Y Combinator’s Winter 2015 batch. Under his leadership, the company has grown with an estimated +30 million registered users from startups to global enterprises.A pioneer of open-core companies and new models of entrepreneurship, Sid has built numerous companies through Open Core Ventures, where he is the General Partner. As President and Director of the Sijbrandij Foundation, Sid has launched initiatives to improve and reimagine how we approach issues such as cancer treatment, clean energy, city development, and how we engage with both art and technology. He is also a Board Member of the GitLab Foundation.Sid studied at the University of Twente in the Netherlands where he received an M.S. in Management Science. Named one of the “top business minds of the pandemic” by Forbes for “spreading the gospel of remote work,” Sid is recognized as an expert in the future of work, AI, and entrepreneurship.
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