Is it just me or do those numbers look really bad for a software company. They s...

spullara · on Nov 11, 2014

Enterprise software companies spend a very small amount on R&D. Usually < 15%: http://www.zdnet.com/r-and-d-spend-critical-but-no-fixed-for...

dkhenry · on Nov 11, 2014

I didn't really think of New Relic as "Enterprise Software". They are a SaaS Company. Most of the reason enterprise software has so little R&D is because they spend all their resources customizing deployments for enterprise customers.

chii · on Nov 11, 2014

i think enterprise and SaaS are orthogonal descriptions. new relic is definitely enterprise - as opposed to consumer (ala, dropbox). That their product is a SaaS offering doesn't really make any difference.

mblevin · on Nov 11, 2014

You're talking about two different dimensions.

Enterprise and consumer run along one axis (B2C vs B2B), self-serve vs custom deployment on the other axis (low friction vs high friction)

Much of the innovation we've seen in B2B has not just been the consumerization of the interface but also the move to self-service models.

pbreit · on Nov 11, 2014

It's you. For all the large and growing enterprise software companies you're going to see very heavy sales & marketing.

For example, Zendesk was nearly identical: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1463172/0001193125141...