NewRelic is one of the finest software as a service companies today. They filed their IPO last year in November. I really want to know about how they accelerated growth and how they accessed a very difficult consumer base aka developers and won their hearts. Obviously, their product is awesome but there must be some key growth factors.
[+] [-] smt88|11 years ago|reply
Why? They're smart, inquisitive, and have money. In very few industries do you get all three of those things.
Most importantly, great developers are also lazy. Someone who pathologically tries to automate things hates doing tedious work, and profiling, reading logs, and setting up alert systems is tedious, mindless work.
In fact, when developers find something that seems like it could be tedious or repetitive, they'll generally Google a solution, rather than just doing it. That makes it much easier to market something to them.
New Relic simply identified a need for this nearly-perfect market, and they weren't "schlep blind"[1]. If you don't know why it's a schlep, try scaling a system like theirs. It's a nightmare.
Edit: If you don't believe devs are a great market, look at some of the other meteoric rises in recent years: Stripe and Slack. They did something that many other companies had already been doing, but they did it in a much more developer-friendly way.
1. http://paulgraham.com/schlep.html
[+] [-] growthape|11 years ago|reply
In my opinion you need to have a team of devs who can communicate to their native communities. I believe you tend to trust people who are somewhat similar to you.
What I experienced myself that NewRelic customer service is just amazing. People are so happy that they get help like a blaze.
I think user experience has become their forte. Plus, how they market Data Nerd T-shirts. Its just great because its highly relevant. Everyone wants one!