I actually just took Nick up on the offer to call or text, and we just got off the phone. We chatted about how we can find people to meet even though we just moved to a new city.
I think this is a pretty incredible move. I went through Lambda's full-stack program part-time, but I would definitely say it leans more front-end heavy. This will be great for those that really want to focus on the back-end development.
(full disclosure, I was employed at Lambda while going through the part-time program)
"GitLab + Now gives you a multi-cloud, multi-language/framework serverless solution with built-in CI/CD, TLS (Let's Encrypt), DNS with zero maintenance or configuration.
Most CI solutions involve painful config, fine-tuning & dedicated folks keeping it up to date."
They sell to enterprises. They have customers like BMW, Southwest, etc. They get MBAs to learn to use them in school, then when they have to use a product when they get a job at a fortune 500, they go with Qualtrics since they know how to use it. That's how they got a lot of market penetration.
I previously worked at GitLab, and I can confirm this is the point that I find most commenters on HN miss. GitLab's web platform, at the moment, is essentially a marketing expense to get people to use GitLab and push it into their day jobs.
I worked for a company where RSUs did not vest until liquidity event. There were a lot of earned options that people still haven't been able to exercise. People that have been there for over 8 years. I just forfeited mine and moved on to a different company.
>Grocery stores can market these meal kits as more affordable, healthier, and 'hip'.
I did a meal kit service for a little while, and my biggest complaint was that it was not any cheaper than if I were to go out to eat, but I still had to cook the meal and clean up afterwards. If there were a cost savings versus going to eat at a restaurant, I would have kept the subscription.
It's interesting that they started off selling to universities. This is the same strategy that Qualtrics used, where they started with Universities then moved into enterprise:
They've been really great to work with and they've been able to handle our data as we've scaled at Vercel.
Congrats on the launch!