NASDAQ Framework: GitLab Inc.

DevSecOps platform provider for software development 1 2 3.

GitLab Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, develops and provides a comprehensive DevSecOps platform that integrates development, operations, IT, security, and business teams into a single application. This platform, built on a unified codebase and data model, offers both self-managed and SaaS deployment options, enabling organizations to streamline their software development lifecycle from planning to deployment 4 5 6 7.

4: GitLab Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops software for the software development lifecycle in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. It offers GitLab, a DevOps platform, which is a single application that leads to faster cycle time and allows visibility throughout and control over various stages of the DevOps lifecycle. The company helps organizations to plan, build, secure, and deploy software to drive business outcomes. It also provides related training and professional services. The company was formerly known as GitLab B.V. and changed its name to GitLab Inc. in July 2015. GitLab Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. View Source5: GitLab Inc operates on an all-remote model. GitLab, a complete DevSecOps platform delivered as a single application. It operates in two competitive landscapes: DevOps point solutions and DevOps platforms. In terms of point solutions that are stitched together, GitLab's offering is substantially different in that it is one platform, one codebase, one interface, and a unified data model that spans the entire DevSecOps lifecycle. DevOps platforms, the principal competitor is Microsoft Corporation following their acquisition of GitHub. GitLab is offered on both self-managed and software-as-a-service (SaaS) models. It is located in the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific. It focused on accelerating innovation and broadening the distribution of its platform to companies across the world. View Source6: GitLab Inc. is the provider of The DevOps platform, a single application that brings together development, operations, IT, security, and business teams to deliver desired business outcomes. GitLab Inc. is based in SAN FRANCISCO. View Source7: GitLab Inc. provides DevSecOps Platform, a single application that brings together development, operations, information technology, security, and business teams. The DevSecOps Platform is built on a single codebase, unified data model, and user interface. The Company allows organizations to deploy the DevSecOps Platform as a self-managed offering in their own hybrid-cloud, or on-premises environments, and as a software as a service offering, it is hosted in either the public... View Source

UNKNOWN

The provided facts do not specify whether GitLab Inc. is still led by its founders or if the founders are heavily involved in the company's current operations.

HIGH RISK

GitLab Inc. faces significant financial and operational challenges. The company has exhibited gross negligence in accounting and security practices, as evidenced by an adverse opinion from KPMG on their internal controls over financial reporting 8 9 10. Additionally, GitLab Inc. has been accused of manipulating revenue recognition and cost of revenue practices, which further undermines financial stability 11 12 13. The company is also experiencing high churn rates for its premium Ultimate plan, indicating difficulties in retaining customers and generating consistent revenue 14 15. Moreover, GitLab Inc. has a negative net margin and return on assets, suggesting poor profitability and inefficient asset utilization 16 17. These factors collectively point to a high-risk financial situation for GitLab Inc.

8: GitLab Inc. has exhibited serious gross negligence in their accounting and security practices. GitLab Inc. has not taken meaningful steps to address these serious accounting and security concerns raised by auditor KPMG. GitLab Inc. appointed a Chief Accounting Officer with a recent history of similar behaviors, who in her first several months in the role is actively recruiting employees who do not take finance or accounting seriously. GitLab Inc. has shared private customer information over the public internet. Meanwhile, GitLab Inc. positions themselves as a security solution for developers. View Source9: In researching GitLab Inc.’s revenue recognition and IT controls practices resulting from the adverse opinion issued by KPMG on GitLab’s 10-K filed on March 30, 2023, I have found numerous egregious and blatant security and accounting failures occurring at GitLab Inc. I do not believe at present time that GitLab Inc. should advertises itself as “DevSecOps” when in fact GitLab Inc. completely fails to secure its own customer and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance data and makes these available on the public internet. View Source10: In the section titled “Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm” KPMG notes an (extremely rarely issued) adverse opinion of GitLab Inc.’s effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, noting in the document that “this material weakness affects substantially all financial statement accounts.” View Source11: II: I believe there is strong evidence suggesting that GitLab Inc. is using non-GAAP methods relating to “Merge Requests” and other code patterns to inappropriately recognize revenue and/or cost of revenue. I believe this is a deliberate manipulation under ASC 606. Further, I believe there is strong evidence that shows these code patterns GitLab Inc. uses to allocate revenue recognition and/or cost of revenue lies a single dashboard in business intelligence tool Sisense, with accounting logic held in dbt Labs products, run on Snowflake cloud data warehouse software. Additionally, I see strong evidence suggesting that GitLab Inc. management is also using incorrect data for their “Merge” and code churn accounting metrics. View Source12: This change from 1–15% upfront revenue recognition when the company was an “emerging growth company” to its recent change to “up to 23% allocation” upfront shows that GitLab Inc. is in some way moving increasing revenue forward as the market changes and developer and technical employee layoffs have occurred throughout the market. I do not believe GitLab Inc. is doing its shareholders justice by failing to properly address nuance associated with this change to revenue recognition. Further, I will show evidence in this letter of how this “performance obligation” factor of ASC 606 has been gamified by GitLab Inc. before and after IPO, with implications around revenue recognition and cost of revenue. View Source13: It seems this is the standard GitLab Inc. was using at the time of their IPO. I believe the “code churn” or “merge” patterns GitLab Inc. is using affect how they approach ASC 606 performance obligations standards, around cost of revenue and around revenue recognition. This aligns with the “1 — 15%” allocation GitLab Inc. noted in their S-1, yet it still brings to question why they are currently now allocating 23% upfront on at least some of their offerings per their latest 10-K. View Source14: V: I believe GitLab Inc.’s premium offering, the Ultimate plan, is seeing higher than expected churn in addition to lower than expected adoption. GitLab Inc.’s decision to mandate professional services as an add-on for Ultimate plan adopters shows the inherent weakness in the product offering. GitLab Inc. shareholders should be aware of this headwind relating to GitLab Inc.’s product offerings. Additionally, I see major headwinds to GitLab Inc.’s ability to retain revenue from existing given current economic conditions. I do not believe GitLab Inc. products are positioned to compete with GitHub given the superiority of GitHub’s AI Copilot offering. View Source15: This clearly shows that the Ultimate plan list priced at $99/month per user is experiencing churn issues among larger accounts, with the need for GitLab Inc. to supplement customer usage with professional services. I would expect that professional services revenues will increase going forward on GitLab Inc.’s consolidated financial statements. View Source16: Net Margin: GitLab's net margin lags behind industry averages, suggesting challenges in maintaining strong profitability. With a net margin of -32.3%, the company may face hurdles in effective cost management. View Source17: Return on Assets (ROA): GitLab's ROA is below industry standards, pointing towards difficulties in efficiently utilizing assets. With an ROA of -4.14%, the company may encounter challenges in delivering satisfactory returns from its assets. View Source

NO

The provided facts do not indicate that GitLab Inc. is launching any new product offerings.

GitLab Inc.'s product roadmap and expansion strategy for 2024 through to 2026 focuses on addressing current challenges and leveraging opportunities in the DevSecOps market. The company aims to enhance its comprehensive DevSecOps platform, which integrates development, operations, IT, security, and business teams into a single application 18 19 20. GitLab plans to continue offering both self-managed and SaaS deployment options to cater to diverse organizational needs 21. Additionally, GitLab is expected to focus on improving customer retention and reducing churn rates for its premium Ultimate plan by potentially increasing professional services revenues 22 23. The company also faces competitive pressure from GitHub's AI Copilot, which may drive GitLab to innovate and improve its AI capabilities 24 25. However, GitLab's expansion efforts will need to address significant financial and operational challenges, including improving accounting and security practices as highlighted by KPMG's adverse opinion 26 27 28.

18: GitLab Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops software for the software development lifecycle in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. It offers GitLab, a DevOps platform, which is a single application that leads to faster cycle time and allows visibility throughout and control over various stages of the DevOps lifecycle. The company helps organizations to plan, build, secure, and deploy software to drive business outcomes. It also provides related training and professional services. The company was formerly known as GitLab B.V. and changed its name to GitLab Inc. in July 2015. GitLab Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. View Source19: GitLab Inc operates on an all-remote model. GitLab, a complete DevSecOps platform delivered as a single application. It operates in two competitive landscapes: DevOps point solutions and DevOps platforms. In terms of point solutions that are stitched together, GitLab's offering is substantially different in that it is one platform, one codebase, one interface, and a unified data model that spans the entire DevSecOps lifecycle. DevOps platforms, the principal competitor is Microsoft Corporation following their acquisition of GitHub. GitLab is offered on both self-managed and software-as-a-service (SaaS) models. It is located in the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific. It focused on accelerating innovation and broadening the distribution of its platform to companies across the world. View Source20: GitLab Inc. is the provider of The DevOps platform, a single application that brings together development, operations, IT, security, and business teams to deliver desired business outcomes. GitLab Inc. is based in SAN FRANCISCO. View Source21: GitLab Inc. provides DevSecOps Platform, a single application that brings together development, operations, information technology, security, and business teams. The DevSecOps Platform is built on a single codebase, unified data model, and user interface. The Company allows organizations to deploy the DevSecOps Platform as a self-managed offering in their own hybrid-cloud, or on-premises environments, and as a software as a service offering, it is hosted in either the public... View Source22: This clearly shows that the Ultimate plan list priced at $99/month per user is experiencing churn issues among larger accounts, with the need for GitLab Inc. to supplement customer usage with professional services. I would expect that professional services revenues will increase going forward on GitLab Inc.’s consolidated financial statements. View Source23: GitLab Inc.’s premium offering, the Ultimate plan, is clearly facing headwinds in adoption. This plan offers additional features over the Premium plan and costs over 3x as much per user. View Source24: V: I believe GitLab Inc.’s premium offering, the Ultimate plan, is seeing higher than expected churn in addition to lower than expected adoption. GitLab Inc.’s decision to mandate professional services as an add-on for Ultimate plan adopters shows the inherent weakness in the product offering. GitLab Inc. shareholders should be aware of this headwind relating to GitLab Inc.’s product offerings. Additionally, I see major headwinds to GitLab Inc.’s ability to retain revenue from existing given current economic conditions. I do not believe GitLab Inc. products are positioned to compete with GitHub given the superiority of GitHub’s AI Copilot offering. View Source25: Additionally, GitLab Inc. is currently facing an existential crisis regarding AI, specifically the adoption of Copilot from competitor GitHub, owned by Microsoft. GitHub Copilot allows customers to add automation to code development and will likely save developer time and headcount. GitLab Inc. is quickly falling behind as developer headcount has contracted across the market with significant tech layoffs, a trend I believe will continue into early calendar 2024. View Source26: GitLab Inc. has exhibited serious gross negligence in their accounting and security practices. GitLab Inc. has not taken meaningful steps to address these serious accounting and security concerns raised by auditor KPMG. GitLab Inc. appointed a Chief Accounting Officer with a recent history of similar behaviors, who in her first several months in the role is actively recruiting employees who do not take finance or accounting seriously. GitLab Inc. has shared private customer information over the public internet. Meanwhile, GitLab Inc. positions themselves as a security solution for developers. View Source27: In researching GitLab Inc.’s revenue recognition and IT controls practices resulting from the adverse opinion issued by KPMG on GitLab’s 10-K filed on March 30, 2023, I have found numerous egregious and blatant security and accounting failures occurring at GitLab Inc. I do not believe at present time that GitLab Inc. should advertises itself as “DevSecOps” when in fact GitLab Inc. completely fails to secure its own customer and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance data and makes these available on the public internet. View Source28: In the section titled “Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm” KPMG notes an (extremely rarely issued) adverse opinion of GitLab Inc.’s effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, noting in the document that “this material weakness affects substantially all financial statement accounts.” View Source

Sources

1: GitLab Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops software for the software development lifecycle in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. It offers GitLab, a DevOps platform, which is a single application that leads to faster cycle time and allows visibility throughout and control over various stages of the DevOps lifecycle. The company helps organizations to plan, build, secure, and deploy software to drive business outcomes. It also provides related training and professional services. The company was formerly known as GitLab B.V. and changed its name to GitLab Inc. in July 2015. GitLab Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. View Source2: GitLab Inc. is the provider of The DevOps platform, a single application that brings together development, operations, IT, security, and business teams to deliver desired business outcomes. GitLab Inc. is based in SAN FRANCISCO. View Source3: GitLab Inc. designs and develops software solutions. The Company offers platform for authentication, authorization, devops score, audit, and value stream management. GitLab serves customers worldwide. View Source4: GitLab Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops software for the software development lifecycle in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. It offers GitLab, a DevOps platform, which is a single application that leads to faster cycle time and allows visibility throughout and control over various stages of the DevOps lifecycle. The company helps organizations to plan, build, secure, and deploy software to drive business outcomes. It also provides related training and professional services. The company was formerly known as GitLab B.V. and changed its name to GitLab Inc. in July 2015. GitLab Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. View Source5: GitLab Inc operates on an all-remote model. GitLab, a complete DevSecOps platform delivered as a single application. It operates in two competitive landscapes: DevOps point solutions and DevOps platforms. In terms of point solutions that are stitched together, GitLab's offering is substantially different in that it is one platform, one codebase, one interface, and a unified data model that spans the entire DevSecOps lifecycle. DevOps platforms, the principal competitor is Microsoft Corporation following their acquisition of GitHub. GitLab is offered on both self-managed and software-as-a-service (SaaS) models. It is located in the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific. It focused on accelerating innovation and broadening the distribution of its platform to companies across the world. View Source6: GitLab Inc. is the provider of The DevOps platform, a single application that brings together development, operations, IT, security, and business teams to deliver desired business outcomes. GitLab Inc. is based in SAN FRANCISCO. View Source7: GitLab Inc. provides DevSecOps Platform, a single application that brings together development, operations, information technology, security, and business teams. The DevSecOps Platform is built on a single codebase, unified data model, and user interface. The Company allows organizations to deploy the DevSecOps Platform as a self-managed offering in their own hybrid-cloud, or on-premises environments, and as a software as a service offering, it is hosted in either the public... View Source8: GitLab Inc. has exhibited serious gross negligence in their accounting and security practices. GitLab Inc. has not taken meaningful steps to address these serious accounting and security concerns raised by auditor KPMG. GitLab Inc. appointed a Chief Accounting Officer with a recent history of similar behaviors, who in her first several months in the role is actively recruiting employees who do not take finance or accounting seriously. GitLab Inc. has shared private customer information over the public internet. Meanwhile, GitLab Inc. positions themselves as a security solution for developers. View Source9: In researching GitLab Inc.’s revenue recognition and IT controls practices resulting from the adverse opinion issued by KPMG on GitLab’s 10-K filed on March 30, 2023, I have found numerous egregious and blatant security and accounting failures occurring at GitLab Inc. I do not believe at present time that GitLab Inc. should advertises itself as “DevSecOps” when in fact GitLab Inc. completely fails to secure its own customer and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance data and makes these available on the public internet. View Source10: In the section titled “Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm” KPMG notes an (extremely rarely issued) adverse opinion of GitLab Inc.’s effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, noting in the document that “this material weakness affects substantially all financial statement accounts.” View Source11: II: I believe there is strong evidence suggesting that GitLab Inc. is using non-GAAP methods relating to “Merge Requests” and other code patterns to inappropriately recognize revenue and/or cost of revenue. I believe this is a deliberate manipulation under ASC 606. Further, I believe there is strong evidence that shows these code patterns GitLab Inc. uses to allocate revenue recognition and/or cost of revenue lies a single dashboard in business intelligence tool Sisense, with accounting logic held in dbt Labs products, run on Snowflake cloud data warehouse software. Additionally, I see strong evidence suggesting that GitLab Inc. management is also using incorrect data for their “Merge” and code churn accounting metrics. View Source12: This change from 1–15% upfront revenue recognition when the company was an “emerging growth company” to its recent change to “up to 23% allocation” upfront shows that GitLab Inc. is in some way moving increasing revenue forward as the market changes and developer and technical employee layoffs have occurred throughout the market. I do not believe GitLab Inc. is doing its shareholders justice by failing to properly address nuance associated with this change to revenue recognition. Further, I will show evidence in this letter of how this “performance obligation” factor of ASC 606 has been gamified by GitLab Inc. before and after IPO, with implications around revenue recognition and cost of revenue. View Source13: It seems this is the standard GitLab Inc. was using at the time of their IPO. I believe the “code churn” or “merge” patterns GitLab Inc. is using affect how they approach ASC 606 performance obligations standards, around cost of revenue and around revenue recognition. This aligns with the “1 — 15%” allocation GitLab Inc. noted in their S-1, yet it still brings to question why they are currently now allocating 23% upfront on at least some of their offerings per their latest 10-K. View Source14: V: I believe GitLab Inc.’s premium offering, the Ultimate plan, is seeing higher than expected churn in addition to lower than expected adoption. GitLab Inc.’s decision to mandate professional services as an add-on for Ultimate plan adopters shows the inherent weakness in the product offering. GitLab Inc. shareholders should be aware of this headwind relating to GitLab Inc.’s product offerings. Additionally, I see major headwinds to GitLab Inc.’s ability to retain revenue from existing given current economic conditions. I do not believe GitLab Inc. products are positioned to compete with GitHub given the superiority of GitHub’s AI Copilot offering. View Source15: This clearly shows that the Ultimate plan list priced at $99/month per user is experiencing churn issues among larger accounts, with the need for GitLab Inc. to supplement customer usage with professional services. I would expect that professional services revenues will increase going forward on GitLab Inc.’s consolidated financial statements. View Source16: Net Margin: GitLab's net margin lags behind industry averages, suggesting challenges in maintaining strong profitability. With a net margin of -32.3%, the company may face hurdles in effective cost management. View Source17: Return on Assets (ROA): GitLab's ROA is below industry standards, pointing towards difficulties in efficiently utilizing assets. With an ROA of -4.14%, the company may encounter challenges in delivering satisfactory returns from its assets. View Source18: GitLab Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops software for the software development lifecycle in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. It offers GitLab, a DevOps platform, which is a single application that leads to faster cycle time and allows visibility throughout and control over various stages of the DevOps lifecycle. The company helps organizations to plan, build, secure, and deploy software to drive business outcomes. It also provides related training and professional services. The company was formerly known as GitLab B.V. and changed its name to GitLab Inc. in July 2015. GitLab Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. View Source19: GitLab Inc operates on an all-remote model. GitLab, a complete DevSecOps platform delivered as a single application. It operates in two competitive landscapes: DevOps point solutions and DevOps platforms. In terms of point solutions that are stitched together, GitLab's offering is substantially different in that it is one platform, one codebase, one interface, and a unified data model that spans the entire DevSecOps lifecycle. DevOps platforms, the principal competitor is Microsoft Corporation following their acquisition of GitHub. GitLab is offered on both self-managed and software-as-a-service (SaaS) models. It is located in the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific. It focused on accelerating innovation and broadening the distribution of its platform to companies across the world. View Source20: GitLab Inc. is the provider of The DevOps platform, a single application that brings together development, operations, IT, security, and business teams to deliver desired business outcomes. GitLab Inc. is based in SAN FRANCISCO. View Source21: GitLab Inc. provides DevSecOps Platform, a single application that brings together development, operations, information technology, security, and business teams. The DevSecOps Platform is built on a single codebase, unified data model, and user interface. The Company allows organizations to deploy the DevSecOps Platform as a self-managed offering in their own hybrid-cloud, or on-premises environments, and as a software as a service offering, it is hosted in either the public... View Source22: This clearly shows that the Ultimate plan list priced at $99/month per user is experiencing churn issues among larger accounts, with the need for GitLab Inc. to supplement customer usage with professional services. I would expect that professional services revenues will increase going forward on GitLab Inc.’s consolidated financial statements. View Source23: GitLab Inc.’s premium offering, the Ultimate plan, is clearly facing headwinds in adoption. This plan offers additional features over the Premium plan and costs over 3x as much per user. View Source24: V: I believe GitLab Inc.’s premium offering, the Ultimate plan, is seeing higher than expected churn in addition to lower than expected adoption. GitLab Inc.’s decision to mandate professional services as an add-on for Ultimate plan adopters shows the inherent weakness in the product offering. GitLab Inc. shareholders should be aware of this headwind relating to GitLab Inc.’s product offerings. Additionally, I see major headwinds to GitLab Inc.’s ability to retain revenue from existing given current economic conditions. I do not believe GitLab Inc. products are positioned to compete with GitHub given the superiority of GitHub’s AI Copilot offering. View Source25: Additionally, GitLab Inc. is currently facing an existential crisis regarding AI, specifically the adoption of Copilot from competitor GitHub, owned by Microsoft. GitHub Copilot allows customers to add automation to code development and will likely save developer time and headcount. GitLab Inc. is quickly falling behind as developer headcount has contracted across the market with significant tech layoffs, a trend I believe will continue into early calendar 2024. View Source26: GitLab Inc. has exhibited serious gross negligence in their accounting and security practices. GitLab Inc. has not taken meaningful steps to address these serious accounting and security concerns raised by auditor KPMG. GitLab Inc. appointed a Chief Accounting Officer with a recent history of similar behaviors, who in her first several months in the role is actively recruiting employees who do not take finance or accounting seriously. GitLab Inc. has shared private customer information over the public internet. Meanwhile, GitLab Inc. positions themselves as a security solution for developers. View Source27: In researching GitLab Inc.’s revenue recognition and IT controls practices resulting from the adverse opinion issued by KPMG on GitLab’s 10-K filed on March 30, 2023, I have found numerous egregious and blatant security and accounting failures occurring at GitLab Inc. I do not believe at present time that GitLab Inc. should advertises itself as “DevSecOps” when in fact GitLab Inc. completely fails to secure its own customer and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance data and makes these available on the public internet. View Source28: In the section titled “Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm” KPMG notes an (extremely rarely issued) adverse opinion of GitLab Inc.’s effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, noting in the document that “this material weakness affects substantially all financial statement accounts.” View Source