Some concerns about Ladybird's bylaws
Posted on June 6, 2026 • 4 minutes • 731 words
I used to be interested in Ladybird . Independent browser engine, built from scratch, no Blink/WebKit/Gecko code. On paper, exactly the kind of project the web needs if we don’t want Chrome to become the new IE.
In July 2024, Chris Wanstrath (GitHub co-founder, former CEO) and Andreas Kling turned it into a proper 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Ladybird Browser Initiative. Chris kicked in $1 million of his own money. No search deals, no ads, no tracking users to pay the bills. Great pitch.
Before we start: the full document is on Ladybird’s organization page , under Public Records. The direct link is Bylaws of the Ladybird Browser Initiative (PDF, adopted March 22, 2024) . Chris Wanstrath certified it as Secretary. If anything below sounds off, read that first and judge for yourself.
But I’m a nerd, so instead of just cheering I went through it. And yeah, the governance is way more interesting than the marketing page lets on.
the “Designator” thing
There’s a role in the bylaws called Designator. There are exactly two:
Christopher Wanstrath and Andreas Kling.
They serve for life. And they basically own the org:
- They pick who’s on the board. Directors aren’t elected. They’re designated by Chris and Andreas.
- If someone leaves, they pick the replacement.
- They can remove directors whenever they want, no reason needed.
- The board can’t even change the bylaws without both of them signing off in writing.
There are no voting members. Nobody gets to vote on anything. You can maybe become a non-voting “member” and pay dues, but that’s it.
So it’s not a community-run nonprofit in the Mozilla or Debian sense. It’s a nonprofit where two guys hold the keys. Chris wrote the check. Andreas writes the code. The legal docs say they stay in charge until one of them dies, quits, or is declared incapacitated.
I can see why they’d set it up this way. You’re trying to build a browser engine from zero. That takes years and a lot of money. You don’t want a board coup or a bylaws rewrite while you’re mid-flight. The Designator setup is basically “founders keep control, encoded in law.” Makes sense if you’re the founder. Less great if you’re anyone else.
the rest is normal nonprofit stuff
Past the Designator weirdness, it’s mostly standard California nonprofit boilerplate. Board has to keep executive pay “just and reasonable.” Self-dealing transactions need extra approval. Once revenue hits $2M they have to get audited and publish the financials publicly.
Current board per their org page : Kling (President), Tim Flynn (Secretary), Mike Shaver (Treasurer). Jelle Raaijmakers is COO. Kling is both Designator and President, which the bylaws allow.
Financials still say “to be published soon” on the website. They’re not at the $2M audit threshold yet, so fair enough.
sponsors can’t buy seats, but founders already have them
Ladybird’s public line is great: sponsorships are unrestricted donations, board seats aren’t for sale, sponsors don’t get a say in the technical roadmap. I believe them. The bylaws back that part up: donors don’t elect anyone.
But the flip side is the anti-capture mechanism isn’t “the community decides.” It’s “Chris and Andreas decide, forever.” A Shopify or whoever can’t buy influence through a board seat. Chris and Andreas already have all the influence structurally, and the bylaws make sure it stays that way.
It’s just not what people might assume when they hear “open source nonprofit browser.” You hear nonprofit and think distributed governance, member votes, foundation model. Ladybird is more like a well-funded indie project with a tax-exempt wrapper and a very specific power structure.
would I support it?
No.
I’m a Firefox person. Firefox has plenty of problems, Google money being the big one. But Mozilla at least pretends to be a community project. There’s a foundation, a public roadmap, contributors who aren’t on the payroll, some semblance of governance that isn’t just two founders for life.
Ladybird is less open than that. The code is on GitHub, sure, but the org isn’t yours. Chris and Andreas pick the board, veto any bylaw change, and can remove directors at will. No voting members. No community say in how the project is run. Reading the bylaws killed whatever goodwill I had left.
I’ll take Firefox’s messy openness over Ladybird’s clean founder dictatorship. Browser diversity matters, but this isn’t the kind of open I want to get behind.