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Jun 27, 2019 · 24m · saastr

Lessons from New Relic: Five Critical Steps to Scaling Enterprise

Erica Schultz · 23m spoken
0:00 / 0:00
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this SaaStr keynote, New Relic Chief Revenue Officer Erica Schultz shares five essential strategic lessons for scaling a high-growth SaaS business from SMB roots into enterprise market dominance. She outlines how aligning cross-functional teams, hiring agile builders, elevating product pitches into value-driven solutions, and fostering authentic customer empathy drive sustainable enterprise expansion.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →

Jason as informed peer 0.0 Guest teaching 0.0 Guest disagreement 0.0 Jason pushing back 0.0
05100:0010:0020:004:30–8:34 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Lesson 1: Treating Enterprise Transformation as a Company Sport This is a solo presentation monologue by Erica Schultz explaining how shifting to enterprise requires cross-functional alignment across sales, marketing, and product. With no host interaction, all conflict, pushback, and host-related scores are zero.8:36–12:31 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Lesson 2: Hiring Experienced, Strategic, and Agile Builders Schultz continues her presentation alone, discussing hiring talent with enterprise experience who also retain a builder mindset. There is no active host dialogue or pushback in this solo talk.12:33–16:30 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Lesson 3: Cultivating a Culture of Customer Empathy Schultz details building customer empathy, illustrating with an anecdote where a rep condescendingly offered to lead a client out of the 'Dark Ages.' As a monologue, all interactive dynamics remain zero.16:32–19:00 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Lesson 4: Delivering Business Value Solutions Over Products Schultz recounts shifting from simply showing the product and bringing Jimmy John's to delivering structured business solutions. There is no host involvement or disagreement.19:04–24:57 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Lesson 5: Partnering for Advocacy and Preserving SMB Strengths Schultz concludes her keynote by emphasizing strategic customer partnerships and retaining core SMB strengths. The segment is entirely uninterrupted monologue.4:30–8:34 · Guest teaching 0/10 Lesson 1: Treating Enterprise Transformation as a Company Sport This is a solo presentation monologue by Erica Schultz explaining how shifting to enterprise requires cross-functional alignment across sales, marketing, and product. With no host interaction, all conflict, pushback, and host-related scores are zero.8:36–12:31 · Guest teaching 0/10 Lesson 2: Hiring Experienced, Strategic, and Agile Builders Schultz continues her presentation alone, discussing hiring talent with enterprise experience who also retain a builder mindset. There is no active host dialogue or pushback in this solo talk.12:33–16:30 · Guest teaching 0/10 Lesson 3: Cultivating a Culture of Customer Empathy Schultz details building customer empathy, illustrating with an anecdote where a rep condescendingly offered to lead a client out of the 'Dark Ages.' As a monologue, all interactive dynamics remain zero.16:32–19:00 · Guest teaching 0/10 Lesson 4: Delivering Business Value Solutions Over Products Schultz recounts shifting from simply showing the product and bringing Jimmy John's to delivering structured business solutions. There is no host involvement or disagreement.19:04–24:57 · Guest teaching 0/10 Lesson 5: Partnering for Advocacy and Preserving SMB Strengths Schultz concludes her keynote by emphasizing strategic customer partnerships and retaining core SMB strengths. The segment is entirely uninterrupted monologue.4:30–8:34 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Lesson 1: Treating Enterprise Transformation as a Company Sport This is a solo presentation monologue by Erica Schultz explaining how shifting to enterprise requires cross-functional alignment across sales, marketing, and product. With no host interaction, all conflict, pushback, and host-related scores are zero.8:36–12:31 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Lesson 2: Hiring Experienced, Strategic, and Agile Builders Schultz continues her presentation alone, discussing hiring talent with enterprise experience who also retain a builder mindset. There is no active host dialogue or pushback in this solo talk.12:33–16:30 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Lesson 3: Cultivating a Culture of Customer Empathy Schultz details building customer empathy, illustrating with an anecdote where a rep condescendingly offered to lead a client out of the 'Dark Ages.' As a monologue, all interactive dynamics remain zero.16:32–19:00 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Lesson 4: Delivering Business Value Solutions Over Products Schultz recounts shifting from simply showing the product and bringing Jimmy John's to delivering structured business solutions. There is no host involvement or disagreement.19:04–24:57 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Lesson 5: Partnering for Advocacy and Preserving SMB Strengths Schultz concludes her keynote by emphasizing strategic customer partnerships and retaining core SMB strengths. The segment is entirely uninterrupted monologue.4:30–8:34 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Lesson 1: Treating Enterprise Transformation as a Company Sport This is a solo presentation monologue by Erica Schultz explaining how shifting to enterprise requires cross-functional alignment across sales, marketing, and product. With no host interaction, all conflict, pushback, and host-related scores are zero.8:36–12:31 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Lesson 2: Hiring Experienced, Strategic, and Agile Builders Schultz continues her presentation alone, discussing hiring talent with enterprise experience who also retain a builder mindset. There is no active host dialogue or pushback in this solo talk.12:33–16:30 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Lesson 3: Cultivating a Culture of Customer Empathy Schultz details building customer empathy, illustrating with an anecdote where a rep condescendingly offered to lead a client out of the 'Dark Ages.' As a monologue, all interactive dynamics remain zero.16:32–19:00 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Lesson 4: Delivering Business Value Solutions Over Products Schultz recounts shifting from simply showing the product and bringing Jimmy John's to delivering structured business solutions. There is no host involvement or disagreement.19:04–24:57 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Lesson 5: Partnering for Advocacy and Preserving SMB Strengths Schultz concludes her keynote by emphasizing strategic customer partnerships and retaining core SMB strengths. The segment is entirely uninterrupted monologue.

speaking balance: gold is Jason, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%0:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%3:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%3:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%6:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%6:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%9:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%9:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%12:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%12:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%15:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%15:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%18:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%18:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%21:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%21:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%24:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%24:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 14:40 Anecdote of rep dismissive response

In a completely non-combative presentation, the closest instance of tension is Schultz recounting a rep dismissively telling a customer New Relic would lead them out of the Dark Ages.

 Hardest push from Jason ▶ 4:30 No host pushback present

There is no host present or speaking during this solo conference address, resulting in zero host pushback across the recording.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 13:15 Enterprise risk and technical debt lesson

Schultz provides an instructive breakdown on why enterprise CIOs prioritize risk mitigation and legacy constraints over simple feature sets.

 Jason holds their own ▶ 4:30 No host intervention present

The session is delivered entirely as an uninterrupted keynote presentation without host participation.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicJason as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementJason pushing backWhy
Lesson 1: Treating Enterprise Transformation as a Company Sport 0000 This is a solo presentation monologue by Erica Schultz explaining how shifting to enterprise requires cross-functional alignment across sales, marketing, and product. With no host interaction, all conflict, pushback, and host-related scores are zero.
Lesson 2: Hiring Experienced, Strategic, and Agile Builders 0000 Schultz continues her presentation alone, discussing hiring talent with enterprise experience who also retain a builder mindset. There is no active host dialogue or pushback in this solo talk.
Lesson 3: Cultivating a Culture of Customer Empathy 0000 Schultz details building customer empathy, illustrating with an anecdote where a rep condescendingly offered to lead a client out of the 'Dark Ages.' As a monologue, all interactive dynamics remain zero.
Lesson 4: Delivering Business Value Solutions Over Products 0000 Schultz recounts shifting from simply showing the product and bringing Jimmy John's to delivering structured business solutions. There is no host involvement or disagreement.
Lesson 5: Partnering for Advocacy and Preserving SMB Strengths 0000 Schultz concludes her keynote by emphasizing strategic customer partnerships and retaining core SMB strengths. The segment is entirely uninterrupted monologue.

Statements from this episode (8)

Assertion Supported
New Relic serves over 17,000 customers including half of Fortune 100
“Today we have more than 17,000 customers including 50% of the Fortune 100, And the 17,000 customers are broken up into what we would, ah, call about 2000 enterprises, and you see a lot of our current customers up there, and 15,000, ah, disruptors.”
Erica Schultz Jun 27, 2019 ▶ 1:23
Assertion Not checkable as stated
New Relic ingests over two billion events and metrics per minute
“We ingest more than two billion events and metrics per minute as we're providing observability to our customers about what's going on in their application and infrastructure environments.”
Erica Schultz Jun 27, 2019 ▶ 2:01
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Schultz: New Relic will hit $1 billion revenue by fiscal 2022
“We've communicated to the street, for example, that, Will be a billion dollars in revenue by the end of our fiscal 22.”
Erica Schultz Jun 27, 2019 ▶ 2:24
Assertion Supported
New Relic crosses $400M revenue with 55% from enterprise
“Fast forward to today, we've crossed the four hundred million revenue mark and we actually, that was our, in our last earnings announcement about 90 days ago. We announced tomorrow. but we've crossed that line, and now we're at about 55% of our revenues comin…”
Erica Schultz Jun 27, 2019 ▶ 2:49
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schultz: Most early SMB bookings came from same-quarter pipeline
“When we were SMB focused in the early years, we were our sales cycles were quick. They were weeks, maybe months, but the vast majority of bookings in a quarter came from pipeline generated in that quarter. That changes quite a bit when you move to enterprise.”
Erica Schultz Jun 27, 2019 ▶ 5:37
Assertion Not checkable as stated
New Relic had no pitch deck in 2014; the product sold itself
“When I started at the company five years ago, We didn't have a pitch deck. The product was the pitch, and I'll talk about that in a little bit.”
Erica Schultz Jun 27, 2019 ▶ 7:20
Insight
Schultz: Big tech enterprise hires must be filtered for builder mindset
“We tend to want to go hire people who are experienced and strategic in the enterprise and maybe hire a lot of folks out of big tech companies. And that is the right move to make, but you also have to apply a filter to that talent to make sure that those experi…”
Erica Schultz Jun 27, 2019 ▶ 9:16
Disclosure
Schultz: Moving upmarket triggered New Relic's customer advisory board
“I think us getting into the enterprise was what triggered our creation of a customer advisory board, and that has been so valuable for us.”
Erica Schultz Jun 27, 2019 ▶ 16:10
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