--- title: 'Investor - Open Core Ventures at Open Core Ventures' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/investor-open-core-ventures-open-core-ventures-san-francisco-bay-area-0jm6dcgagjjw' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-12' --- # Investor - Open Core Ventures at Open Core Ventures - **Company:** Open Core Ventures - **Location:** San Francisco Bay Area - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2025-11-18 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/opencoreventures/jobs/5711722004 ## Job description ## About Open Core Ventures "As software has eaten the world, open source is eating software."  - Peter Levine Commercial open source software companies have captured hundreds of billions in enterprise value, yet this represents only a fraction of the trillions delivered by OSS today. We're still in the early innings. GitLab co-founder and executive chair Sid Sijbrandij started Open Core Ventures (OCV) to accelerate this opportunity. We start companies around promising open source projects, the same approach that took GitLab from OSS project to IPO in seven years. We recruit founders and help them reach escape velocity. We've started 30+ companies around open source projects, including [Fleet](https://fleetdm.com/), [FlowFuse](https://flowfuse.com/), and [Mermaid Chart](https://www.mermaidchart.com/). You can read more about our approach in our [public handbook](https://handbook.opencoreventures.com/). The Investor Role at OCV As an Investor at OCV, you'll identify and research promising open source projects and build investment cases. Unlike traditional venture investing, your job doesn't stop there. You'll launch these companies as interim CEO, working directly with technical founders to drive early growth. Think part investor, part co-founder. ## What You'll Do - Source and evaluate open source projects for commercial potential, digging into codebase quality, architecture, contributor activity, and community traction to identify which projects could become venture-scale companies - Identify and recruit CTO candidates directly from the maintainer and core contributor base of these projects - Launch companies as interim CEO: define the initial product roadmap, ship the first version, land early customers or design partners, and run GTM until the company has real traction ## About You We're looking for 0-1 product managers, product-obsessed founders, or product-centric operators who can spot the next great technology and build it into a real company. You know how to talk to users, do things that don't scale, and build something people want. You could be a great investor at OCV if: - You move fast: you've operated in high-velocity environments and default to shipping and iterating over planning - You have a founder mentality: you've taken big swings with imperfect information before, as a founder, early employee, or in another 0-1 role, and can point to what you learned from what didn't work - You have real technical depth: you've written code or shipped software, and you have a strong grasp of engineering concepts and software architecture. Experience at a top-tier software company is a strong signal - You're relentlessly curious: you dig into how things actually work, not just what they claim to do - You bias toward action: you balance big ideas with concrete execution, including the grunt work, because movement creates momentum ## Compensation Cash: commensurate with market and experience Equity: investors can receive direct equity issuance in companies they help incubate (grants and terms are set via company-specific equity grant agreements). As an example, and for illustrative purposes, OCV offers one of the most favorable risk-adjusted paths to wealth creation in venture: - Direct equity ownership: receive 1% equity in multiple companies you incubate, vesting over just 9 months instead of the typical 4-year schedule - Compared to carry in a traditional fund: you receive cash at exit without the entire fund needing to clear its performance hurdle (typically 8% annual returns to LPs before GPs earn carry). To illustrate: 50bps of carry on a $100M fund requires a 4x return on invested capital to earn $300K. A single $200M exit on a 1% stake at 50% dilution can yield $1M - Compared to founder equity: you launch and support 3 active companies at a time, building a 12-company portfolio over 3 years. That's 12%+ aggregate equity across 12+ companies, founder-level ownership with more shots on goal ## About Open Core Ventures ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Open Core Ventures (OCV) is a venture capital firm that starts commercial open source software companies by recruiting founders around promising open source projects and providing initial funding and operational support. - **Entity Type**: Private (Venture Capital Firm) - **Headquarters**: Remote (HQ in the United States) - **Founded**: 2020 - **Founders**: Sid Sijbrandij (Co-Founder and Executive Chair of GitLab) ## Core Business - **Primary industry/industries**: Venture Capital, Open Source Software, Startup Incubation - **Target customers**: Open source project maintainers and contributors (B2B, Founder-focused) - **Mission or purpose statement**: "To enable more people to become founders" and to make it so "the majority of venture-funded software companies are open core companies." [opencoreventures.com](https://www.opencoreventures.com/) ## Products & Services - **Company Incubation Program**: OCV identifies open source projects with traction, recruits a founding CTO and CEO, incorporates and funds the company with $2M, and provides operational and strategic support until the company raises an external seed round. [opencoreventures.com](https://www.opencoreventures.com/about) - **Catalyst Program**: A program for associates to run the incubation and growth of open source startups. [opencoreventures.com](https://www.opencoreventures.com/about) - **Public Handbook**: An ever-growing handbook of practical advice created specifically for open core companies by experienced open core founders. [opencoreventures.com](https://www.opencoreventures.com/) ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (Private firm) - **Key Metric**: OCV companies have raised over $40M in Seed+ investment following OCV’s initial funding. [opencoreventures.com](https://www.opencoreventures.com/) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Sid Sijbrandij (GitLab CEO), Rich Aberman (WePay founder, former YC Visiting Partner), Chris Hubbell (former Fund Strategy Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, former General Partner at ICONIQ Capital) [opencoreventures.com](https://www.opencoreventures.com/about) - **Growth Signals**: The firm is actively hiring for multiple roles including CTO, Full Stack Engineer, Investor, and Talent Lead, indicating a scaling phase. [boards.greenhouse.io](https://boards.greenhouse.io/opencoreventures) ## Competitive Advantages - **Unique Model**: OCV does not invest in existing companies. Instead, it starts companies from scratch around open source projects, recruiting founders rather than waiting for pitches. This is a "new approach to venture" that turns the traditional model on its head. [opencoreventures.com](https://www.opencoreventures.com/) - **Founder Expertise**: Founded by GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij, a champion of the open source community and a pioneer in scaling remote organizations. The team includes veterans from WePay, Andreessen Horowitz, and Y Combinator. [opencoreventures.com](https://www.opencoreventures.com/about) - **Proven Playbook**: OCV provides a blueprint and operational support, with 50% of OCV companies closing follow-on funding within 12 months. [opencoreventures.com](https://www.opencoreventures.com/about) ## Strategic Focus - **Current priorities**: Identifying open source projects with "massive potential" and recruiting technical founders to launch new OCV companies. The firm is focused on scaling its incubation model and expanding its team across engineering, investing, and talent functions. [opencoreventures.com](https://www.opencoreventures.com/) - **Direction for growth**: To make open core the standard business model for venture-funded software companies, creating more open software and enabling more contributors. [opencoreventures.com](https://www.opencoreventures.com/) ## Why Work Here - **Culture highlights**: OCV's five core values are Boldness, Transparency, Resourcefulness, Inclusion, and Documentation. The firm operates with a public handbook and a culture of open communication, turning the traditional venture model on its head. [handbook.opencoreventures.com](https://handbook.opencoreventures.com/ocv-employees/culture/values) - **Remote/hybrid/office policy**: Fully remote. The headquarters is listed as "REMOTE" and jobs are open to candidates in CA, CO, NY, TX, FL, GA, MA, NJ, PA (with a strong preference for SF Bay Area for some roles). [boards.greenhouse.io](https://boards.greenhouse.io/opencoreventures) - **Notable perks or engineering culture**: The firm is small (10 employees) and highly specialized, offering the chance to work alongside top-tier investors and operators from GitLab, Andreessen Horowitz, and Y Combinator. The work directly impacts the open source ecosystem by lowering the barrier to entrepreneurship. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/open-core-ventures) ## Sources 1. [opencoreventures.com](https://www.opencoreventures.com/) 2. [opencoreventures.com/about](https://www.opencoreventures.com/about) 3. [boards.greenhouse.io](https://boards.greenhouse.io/opencoreventures) 4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/open-core-ventures) 5. [handbook.opencoreventures.com](https://handbook.opencoreventures.com/ocv-employees/culture/values) ## Other roles at Open Core Ventures - [Full Stack Software Engineer - Open Core Ventures](https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-software-engineer-open-core-ventures-open-core-ventures-located-in-wwekxcpcj6n1) — Located in CA CO NY TX FL GA MA NJ, PA - [OCV's Catalyst v2 Application (Summer 2026)](https://feeny.ai/job/ocv-s-catalyst-v2-application-summer-2026-open-core-ventures-united-states-f8hgh3qxmsn5) — United States - [Open Source Software Author/CTO](https://feeny.ai/job/open-source-software-author-cto-open-core-ventures-remote-s0c98rmqnww3)