throwaway3347

SIGN ME UP! That would be a freaking great opportunity!!

I think you asking for the job, might be a signal, that you are not who they are looking for :-)

pretty ambitious plans

I would point you to some very ambitious feature proposals on their issue tracker, but I can't for obvious reasons. I think GitLab is at a cross roads and this setback might be the eye opener they need. Moving forward, they really need to re-evaluate how they develop and evolve GitLab. For both online and Enterprise.

This idea of releasing early and on the 22nd works very well for low hanging fruits problems, but not for the more ambitious plans they have. If they understood the complexity for some of the more ambitious plans, they would know they are looking at, at least a year of R&D to create an MVP.

I think it makes sense to keep doing the release on the 22nd, but they also need to start building out teams that can focus on solving more complex problems that can take months or possibly a year to see fruition. Git hosting has reached a point, where differentiating factors can be easily copied and duplicated, so you are going to need something more substantive, to set yourself apart from the rest. And this is where I think Microsoft may have the upper hand in the future.

Why would they try to recruit from Microsoft?

I'm not sure if you read my post correctly, but I never mentioned poaching from Microsoft. I said compete for programmers that would choose to work for Microsoft. I'm also not sure if you understand what Microsoft does. It's a very diverse company with R&D spending that rivals some small nations.

Microsoft isn't even in this same field (git hosting

I guess you haven't heard of https://www.visualstudio.com/team-services/ and their on premise TFS solution that supports Git.

Microsoft understands Enterprise and it's quite obvious they want to be a major provider for Git hosting. It will be foolish to believe Microsoft is not focused on owning the Git mindshare in Enterprise.

Are you an employee there or something

No. Just somebody that understands this problem space.

Like you, I would like to add my 2 cent, which I hope will be taken positively, as I would like to see them provide healthy competition for GitHub for years to come.

Since GitLab is so transparent about everything, from their marketing/sales/feature proposals/technical issues/etc., they make it glaringly obvious, from time to time, that they lack very fundamental core skills, to do things right/well. In my opinion, they really need to focus on recruiting top talent, with domain expertise.

They (GitLab) need to convince those that would work for Microsoft or GitHub, to work for GitLab. With their current hiring strategy, they are getting capable employees, but they are not getting employees that can help solidify their place online (gitlab.com) and in Enterprise. The fact that they were so nonchalant about running bare metal and talking about implementing features, that they have no basic understanding of, clearly shows the need for better technical guidance.

They really should focus on creating jobs that pays $200,000+ a year, regardless of living location, to attract the best talent from around the world. Getting 3-6 top talent, that can help steer the company in the right direction, can make all the difference in the long run.

GitLab right now, is building a great company to help address low hanging fruit problems, but not a team that can truly compete with GitHub, Atlassian, and Microsoft in the long run. Once the low hanging fruit problems have been addressed, people are going to expect more from Git hosting and this is where Atlassian, GitHub, Microsoft and others that have top talent/domain expertise, will have the advantage.

Let this setback be a vicious reminder that you truly get what you pay for and that it's not too late to build a better team for the future.