Monday, November 18, 2013

Do any startups use GitHub as a repository for their private proprietary code?

Edit
The obvious drawback is storing a startup's (arguably) most valuable asset in an outside environment. Is this crazy to consider?
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Joseph RuscioCTO at http://librato.com 
Assuming you are using Git, that means every developer you employ is running around with a complete repository history of your source code on their laptop. They probably also have internal documents regarding design, product management, etc. Many of them probably use a cloud backup service like Mozy/Dropbox etc. I don't think Github is the weakest link in this chain.

That aside, source code is typically far from your most valuable asset, especially if you're a SaaS offering like many startups. What could a competitor do with your code, absent your people and your branding? Even if it were, Github would probably be the least of your security concerns.

We're a startup and we house all of our code on Github in private organization repositories.
  
2 Comments •  (1) • Thank • Report • 3 Aug, 2010
Joseph Ruscio
Ben Newmanengineer at Quora 
Quora does.
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 16 Dec, 2010
Ben Newman
Kyle BraggerFounder of Forrst 
Yes, I use Github for all projects, both open and closed source. Their infrastructure isn't something I can easily duplicate, and it's nice knowing my code is safe "just in case" (especially when I might be the only developer on the project, hence no other checkouts of the repo).
  
1+ Comments •  • Thank • Report • 3 Aug, 2010
Kyle Bragger
Ian Peters-CampbellI've worked at startups 
Loopt uses GitHub for a number (but not all) of our projects. We switched over after the inimitable Scott Chacon promised everyone lap dances. He hasn't delivered yet, but GitHub's working great.
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 26 Jan, 2011
Ian Peters-Campbell
Kevin FitzpatrickDeveloper & Consultant at Pivotal Labs 
90% of our clients at Pivotal Labs use Github for their source control. I wouldn't recommend anything else.
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 18 Feb, 2011
Kevin Fitzpatrick
Edward Ocampo-GoodingTalent Acquisition, Shopify / Co-founder, Open Data Ottawa 
Shopify’s core codebase as well as its subprojects all lie in the warm, fuzzy embrace known as Github.
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 21 Jul, 2011
Edward Ocampo-Gooding
Hiroshige UminoCo-Founder, CEO, Developer of Increments 
Qiita (a startup in Japan) does. We heavily use pull requests and they're awesome.
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 10 Dec, 2011
Hiroshige Umino
Kadowaki KoheiCTO at ShareWis Inc. 
Votes by Dan Loewenherz and Thomas Foster.
ShareWis does.
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 2 Feb
Kadowaki Kohei
Dan Brazeltonentrepreneur cook cyclist photographer 
Vote by Thomas Foster.
Tall Chair does.
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 7 Aug, 2012
Dan Brazelton
Grzegorz KochanChief of Product and Technology 
Vote by Thomas Foster.
AdTaily does. I think startups wouldn't make much progress without hosted services like github. Hosting everything from source code, through email, to documents by ourself would consume much of our time and money so important especially at the very beginning.
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 7 Feb, 2011
Grzegorz Kochan
Eric SavinarKruiter.com, 500Assets.com - Founder & CEO 
Vote by Thomas Foster.
We do. With a team scattered across Asia and Europe, using Gihtub to host our project do make sense. And I don’t see how it would be possible to be as efficient without this tool! Now, regarding the issue of confidentiality, I don’t see any problem.

As stated by Joseph Rusciothe code is not the only component that makes a startup. What about the months spent on SEO, marketing, recruiting, financing?
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • Updated 26 Jan, 2011
Eric Savina
Rick WaldronThe power of Git compells me. 
Vote by Thomas Foster.
One of our clients is using a private Github repo. They did this at our recommendation, which was a first for us. 

Edit: Yes, the company is a startup.
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 3 Aug, 2010
Rick Waldron
Josh FraserFounder EventVue & Torbit 
Vote by Thomas Foster.
Torbit does
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 26 Jan, 2011
Josh Fraser
Richard FawalCommunicator, entreprenuer, skeptic. Deputy VP of Comm, Brookings. 
Vote by Thomas Foster.
WatchParty does.
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 17 Dec, 2010
Richard Fawal
Prajwal TuladharGreat way to use git 
Vote by Thomas Foster.
sailthru does
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 30 Jan, 2011
Prajwal Tuladhar
Kyle Westfounder @rpmware 
Vote by Thomas Foster.
We do.
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 26 Jul, 2011
Kyle West
We do :)

GitHub is awesome!
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 18 May
Chris Maddern
Sam NewnamVP Operations, ERPEngine, Inc 
Vote by Thomas Foster.
Our entire code base for our new startup is stored in Github
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 28 Jan, 2011
Sam Newnam
Terry WangLinux, DevOps, Middleware Engineer 
If I started a startup, I would set up something like GitLab and host the code within the firewall. GitLab is easy to setup, 15 mins up and running.
  
Comment •  • Thank • Report • 27 Jan

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