Yao Chew's README

Why I’m at GitLab

I’ve been an investor, observer and advisor to some of the world’s coolest tech companies and have had the privilege of having a front-row seat to the action in the capital markets. Gitlab is an incredible business that stands at the confluence of many megatrends - AI proliferation, DevSecOps maturation, and a Point-to-Platform transition that should fuel profitable growth for many years to come. It’s a company in rabid pursuit of the next act - with an aligned team incented and striving for the right outcomes

The running joke in Silicon Valley is that Tech Companies are built to be sold. Through the many tech cycles I’ve seen, there are few opportunities to build generational companies - this is a unique chance to be part of a team that wants to create one. Some of the most outsized returns in equity investing have come from this transition, as there is a huge dislocation between current valuations and future growth if you get it right

In investing terms, I view this career stop as a levered long-only bet on Gitlab equity with asymmetric outcomes to the upside. I hope you do too

My Personal Values

1. Humility - I don’t need to be right all the time and I’m always learning. If there’s a valid viewpoint or issue you feel strongly about with data backing you up, I am happy to disagree and commit. Everyone has battles and wars to be fought at every level - focus on the wars
2. Intensity and Ownership - Trust is priceless - the stakes in public markets are Very High. Things have to be right. There’s a common saying on Wall Street - there are Excuses people and Results people. We love Results people, but get them the right way. I will run through walls to get things done, and I expect the same of my teammates
3. Growth mindset - I’m here to build skills and learn from you along the journey. I respect expertise, institutional knowledge and context; but always strive to find better, less painful, more optimal outcomes. Mistakes are made to help us learn, but reinforcement learning is done by not making the same mistake twice
4. Team Effort - The success of my entire job is reliant on the output of the company. Our equity narrative is on each and every one of you to help write

My Super Powers - how you can get the best from me

1. Truth telling and problem solving - No BS, no politics. Open lines of communication, early warnings and data to back views help everyone work better
2. Communication and context - I’ve seen a LOT of software companies across the spectrum from amazing to terrible. I’ve seen (and written about) mistakes and heroics from CEOs, board members, customers, VCs, competitors that I could probably write a book (or an HBO show) about. We live and thrive in uncertainty and my job is to help navigate that. If there are assumptions needed to get to a conclusion or a number, lay those out alongside the number so I have the full understanding of how certain something is
3. Responsiveness and responsibility - I try to be as responsive as I can; please do as well

My Weaknesses

1. Intensity and ownership - I sometimes ask for a lot because I like to be armed with data/context for every public decision and disclosure. Stakes are high. Please be understanding if I happen to be brusque or offend, especially around earnings season. Feedback is welcome
2. Organization and Prioritization - I often have to juggle 15 different (and often conflicting) strong points of view for every public datapoint. Make yourself heard, but please be understanding when yours doesn’t win out. I also have extreme external demands on my time, and am trying to find ways to build more internal and external leverage. Help me help you
3. Endless Stupid Questions - If you’ve seen Margin Call, I will sometimes ask you to explain things like I’m a golden retriever. Making things simple is hard

My Expectations of Everyone

1. Do your best work - Sometimes ‘good enough’ is necessary in the interest of time, and that’s fine. Generally, try to surprise and delight with outcomes. Trust is priceless
2. Be Awesome - Life is too short to work with bad people. Give more than you take, build trust, find balance between work and other aspects of your life. Make an impact

My Role

1. I head up Investor Relations. I am the primary point of contact for public investors, craft and manage Gitlab’s Equity Narrative, and handle a lot of our quarterly earnings and post earnings process

2. My job is threefold - I have to:

   • Build Awareness - There are more than 100 public software stocks. Why should anyone buy Gitlab over Snowflake, Salesforce, Shopify, etc? What is compelling about our market position, our management team, our product, our competitive position in AI that people don’t understand? Why should the generalist investor who looks at every type of business be interested in this particular software stock?
   • Build Trust and Clarity - What do we choose to disclose the financial and non financial metrics we disclose and what do they mean quarter to quarter? How do we operate as a business? What does the latest launch of Claude Sonnet mean for our product roadmap? The tech world is changing fast, competition is fierce, and everyone has an opinion. How do we codify our management behaviors, set the benchmarks internally and externally by which we want people to judge our success, and deliver (beat and raise) against them?
   • Be a Feedback Loop for Gitlab - Investors have a great birds eye view as they look at thousands of businesses and have perspectives on what’s changing, what’s good, and what’s bad. They are as wrong as often as they are right - but feedback is a gift. What lessons can I distill from the peanut gallery to help Gitlab Do Better?

3. In financial terms, if I do my job well, I will succeed in reducing Gitlab’s cost of capital. Public and trusted is an amazing place to be for a business - it helps to attract talent, provides a currency from which to incent people and aid morale, and serves as a flywheel from which to compound business value

Communication Preferences

1. Slack
2. Email
3. Meetings:
   • Please contact Anita Mall, my EBA, if you need to schedule time on my calendar
4. Phone/text if absolutely necessary and urgent especially around earnings

Expectations for leadership - What I need from you. What you will get from me

1. Be awesome. Do good work with good people. Deliver more value than you extract. It all comes around
2. Solve for enterprise value. Company value over individual
3. Think like an owner. Have pride in your work and reputation, regardless of task
4. I’m always happy to chat, make introductions and bounce ideas off you. Tell me how I can help you

FAQs

1. Why is the stock up today?
   • More buyers than sellers. And Yao has been working very hard
2. Why is the stock down today?
   • The market and our peers are moving in the same direction. Or the market’s gotten it wrong. Or we have more sellers than buyers
3. Should I buy XYZ stock?
   • I am not a financial advisor. I can’t tell you what stocks will go up and down, if I could, I would be on a private island somewhere

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