Growth Community Programs

Growth Community Programs turns relationships into compelling stories and revenue and creates a growth flywheel across community, strategic accounts, and advocacy that seeds tomorrow’s customers and activates today’s.

Meet the team

  • Director, Growth Community Programs - Nicole Smith
  • Staff Marketing Program Manager, Ops - Katie Rogel
  • Sr. Program Manager - Ashley Sezer
  • Program Manager, SELF - Karen Chi
  • Customer Advocacy - Rachel Lurie
  • Customer Advocacy - Leon Donnelly
  • Sr. Manager, Startup Program - Mitchell Hanks
  • Program Manager, Startup Program - Alex Karsten

How to work with us

Public Slack Channels

  • #growth-community-programs-mktg - Questions/discussions for the Growth Community Programs team
  • #ask-community-programs - Questions/discussions for EDU/OSS programs
  • #ask-customer-advocacy-and-references - Questions/discussions for the Customer Advocacy program
  • #dap-customer-insights-agent - Agent posts for DAP insights
  • #self-community-nominations - Questions/discussions for SELF memberships
  • #self-program-team - Questions/discussions for the SELF program team
  • #startup-program - Questions/discussions for the Startup program
  • #co-create-and-community-engineering - Questions/discussions for the Co-Create program

Programs we drive and support

The Software Engineering Leadership Forum (SELF)

SELF (Software Engineering Leadership Forum) is an invite-only, global community for CTOs, CIOs and senior leaders who are committed to shaping the future of software engineering in the AI era. We’re creating an executive community program for both current and future GitLab customers to connect virtually and in person, sharing the insights that matter and building relationships that drive impact. SELF solves for a community program gap between GitLab’s developer programs and our global Executive Advisory Board, serving both prospects and customers to drive executive relationships and pipeline.

For questions regarding the SELF program, please reach out to Karen Chi.

GitLab for Startups Program

About

GitLab is committed to supporting the startup community. The GitLab for Startups Program provides early-stage companies with access to GitLab at reduced or no cost, helping them build with GitLab today and become long-term customers as they scale. The program is owned and managed by the Growth Community Programs team.

How to reach us

For questions about the program, eligibility, applications, quoting, or approvals, contact:

  • DRIs: @akarsten1 and @mhanks
  • Slack channel: #startup-program

Applicants who have already submitted an application can contact startups@gitlab.com for application support.

Program overview

The program is designed for externally funded, net-new startups. Eligibility is based on the startup’s funding stage and is confirmed by the Growth Community Programs team during application review.

The program has two tiers:

  • Seed Stage: Pre-Seed or Seed Stage, with up to $5 million in externally raised funding
  • Early Stage: Series A or Series B, with up to $20 million in externally raised funding.

Program quoting and internal FAQ

For questions about quoting Startup Program customers or the approval process, refer to these resources:

How we manage the program

Related issues can be filed on the Startups Program Support Issue Board.

Program Workflows

For additional workflows, please visit this GitLab for Startups Program Workflows page.

Partner Requests

If you are referring an accelerator or VC partner to the program, please direct them to startups@gitlab.com for Startup Program application or eligibility questions. When making the referral by email, cc Alexander Karsten (akarsten@gitlab.com) or Mitchell Hanks (mhanks@gitlab.com); when referring via Slack, tag us directly or use the #Startup-Program.

Current program offer

Our offering is tiered according to each applicant’s stage of growth. The criteria and benefits for each tier are below.

Seed Stage

Eligibility

  • Pre-Seed or Seed Stage, with up to $5 million in funding
  • Funding must have been raised externally
  • New customers only

Benefits

  • During Year One, members receive:
  • A free Ultimate license for one year, for SaaS or self-managed deployments, with up to 20 seats
  • Support is not included
  • During Year Two, members receive:
  • A 50% discount on any tier, with up to 20 seats
Early Stage

Eligibility

  • Currently in Series A or Series B, with up to $20 million in funding
  • Funding must have been raised externally
  • New customers only

Benefits

  • During Year One, members receive:
    • A 50% discount on any tier, with up to 20 seats
    • Support is not included
  • During Year Two, members receive:
    • A 25% discount on any tier, with up to 20 seats

Program rules

  • The program is available to net-new customers only. Existing Premium or Ultimate customers, and former customers within the applicable re-entry window, do not qualify.
  • The program benefit applies to up to 20 seats. Seats beyond the first 20 are quoted at full price.
  • Seed Year One is web-direct only and is fulfilled through an issued promo code; it cannot be transacted through a reseller.
  • Seed Year Two, Early Year One, and Early Year Two may be transacted through a reseller.
  • After completing Year Two, customers convert to standard commercial pricing. The sales owner should begin that conversation ahead of the Year Two renewal.

Additional information

  • Upon acceptance, program members are subject to the GitLab Subscription Agreement.
  • The decision to issue a GitLab Startup license is always at GitLab’s sole discretion.
  • Program participants must follow the applicable GitLab terms and agreements.

Customer Stories

The Growth Community Programs team partners with Content, Brand, and Design to run a continual, evergreen pipeline of customer stories in various formats including case studies, blogs, and marquee videos. We spotlight customer achievements and the DevSecOps teams that drive their success. The stories we publish are aligned to strategic pillars that support sales needs and integrated initiatives.

We strive to produce three customer stories per quarter and two marquee videos per year. A selection and prioritization process helps us tell the right stories in the right format. Selection criteria is based on GTM goals determined through cross-functional collaboration and strategic alignment, with additional prioritization based on account size, license type and number of users, and use cases.

Have a customer with a compelling story? Help us spotlight your customer by completing the Customer Success Story Idea Submission Form.

Customer Stories Template

The Customer Stories Template can be copied and adjusted for customer pitches.

Where to find customer stories:

Customer Stories for the Loop

The Loop is one way the team communicates customer stories to internal GitLab team members. The team submits these stories by utilizing the below epic and the appropriate fiscal year quarter issue.

FY27 Customer Stories for the Loop

Earnings Customer References

The Growth Community Programs team partners with Investor Relations, Sales, and PMM to identify and showcase customer stories and name drops on our earnings calls each quarter.

We focus on two categories of earnings references:

  • First Order: net new ENT/MM customers typically appear in earnings as name and/or logo drops.
  • Growth: existing ENT/MM customers that have seen measurable success or expansion are typically featured with a story or quote in earnings.

Help us secure earnings customer references. For more details on this process, please review the Customer References Sales Guide.

Customer Logo & Name Usage — Referenceable Customers

In addition to earnings calls, the Growth Community Programs team manages all approved customer references.

Customer reference types vary, and include all approved customer names, logos and pieces of customer evidence that can be leveraged in varied formats publicly in market. These may appear as long-form stories like case studies, blogs, and videos, short proof points like earnings mentions, quotes, and ROI metrics, or simple name and logo placements on GTM materials.

The team continuously updates the Customer Advocacy SSOT and the Customer ROI Evidence House. Leverage these trackers to find a name/logo you’re interested in using, and work with the Growth Community Programs team for final review and approval.

Have a customer that could be a reference? References should be secured in writing - ideally in the contract/order form, in the standalone customer license agreement, or via email. For more information, see the Customer References Sales Guide.

Speaking Opportunities

GitLab’s Growth Community Programs team elevates customer stories and voices at scale across case studies, videos, blogs, logo and name reference agreements, speaking engagements, press, analyst and investor relations, advisory programs and beyond.

To request a customer to speak at and/or otherwise support an event, please open the Customer Speaker Request issue template a minimum of 60 days before the event and assign it to Nicole Smith.

Speaker Expense Process

The team follows the speaker expense process.

Corporate Events

At this time, Growth Community Programs supports customer speaker sourcing for Corporate Events based on a 60 day SLA.

Regional Marketing

Regional Marketing event speaker sourcing is supported by the Regional Marketers directly. However, Growth Community Programs needs visibility and proactive alignment for all ways we are activating customers in market in order to protect our customer’s experience and align our key customers to the most strategic opportunities.

  • RMM partners with their sales counterpart to develop a specific event and identify when a customer speaker is needed
  • RMM and sales create a copy of the Customer Speaker Brief template to identify the ideal customer profile for the event, based on goals and audience demographics, and also compile a list of speaker options.
  • Ideal customer speaker profile parameters include:
    • Account segment
    • Account region
    • Account vertical
    • Account plan and add ons
    • Account use cases
    • Speaker title / level
    • Speaker expertise
  • RMM creates the GitLab epic/issues through the Plan to WIP process and completes the Staffing_Support issue, following the instructions for determining a customer speaker (which involves adding the specified label to the issue and tagging Nicole Smith)
  • Nicole Smith will review (or assign someone) to ensure we do not have larger, strategic advocacy plans for that advocate, and/or haven’t over-activated that advocate. Nicole can also provide feedback and help with suggestions, if needed.
  • Once confirmed, the RMM will continue to source the speaker

Press Opportunities

Growth Community Programs partners with the Corporate Communications team to amplify the voice of customers through various media opportunities such as customer quotes in press releases and media interviews. We strive to pitch press opportunities that will provide the most value to the customer and allow for a continued warm relationship.

To secure a customer quote or an advocate for a media interview, please tag Nicole Smith in the issue at least 30 days prior to the deadline.

Peer Reviews & Analyst Interviews

GitLab maintains its leadership with Gartner Magic Quadrant, Forrester Wave, and IDC Forecasts by securing customers to participate in analyst interviews and market research surveys each quarter.

The Analyst Relations team aligns with the Growth Community Programs team on new survey or interview needs as early as possible to ensure ample time to source the required customer participants.

Executive Advisory Board (EAB) Program

The EAB is an invitation-only cohort of 12-15 VP+ level executives from select GitLab enterprise customer accounts who are driving business and technology transformation with a visionary DevSecOps strategy. Throughout the annual program, the board meets both in person and virtually to engage with GitLab leaders, learn innovative best practices, and share insights to help shape the future of GitLab. For more details on the EAB program, review the Internal Brief.

Other advisory and executive customer programs managed by other teams at GitLab include:

  • Federal Customer Advisory Board - Invitation-only cohort of executives from PubSec customer accounts (Interim DRI: Liz Burrows, PMM PubSec)
  • Federal Advisory Board - Forum of 5-7 paid consultants across the government (Interim DRI: Liz Burrows, PMM PubSec)
  • Executive Sponsorship Program - Pairs strategic customer executives with GitLab senior leadership for regular 1x1 engagement (Interim DRI: Aileen Lu, Sales)

Customer Reference Sales Contests

On an adhoc basis, the Growth Community Programs team runs contests to incentivize the Sales team to identify and secure customer references. The goal is to uncover new, high quality customer references whose names, logos, and stories can help strengthen our standing in the market.

Contests typically run throughout a designated quarter and offer a reward structure where account owners can qualify for monetary incentives by securing customer reference agreements.

Last modified October 2, 2026: Removes EDU and Adds Speaker Expense Process (17ba321c)
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