---
title: "Benchmarking DataDog's S-1: How 7 Key Metrics Stack up"
description: "Analyze DataDog's impressive growth metrics: $333M ARR, 8800+ customers, and 35% new product bookings. Key SaaS benchmarks for founders and investors."
categories: ["S-1 Analysis"]
keywords: ["DataDog","S-1 analysis","SaaS growth metrics","IT monitoring solutions","venture capital","Tomasz Tunguz","customer acquisition","IPO benchmarks","AppDynamics","NewRelic"]
ai_summary: "Explore DataDog's S-1 metrics, showcasing its growth, customer base, and profitability compared to industry peers."
date: 2019-08-26
lastmod: 2026-07-28
canonical_url: https://www.tomtunguz.com/benchmarking-datadog-s-s-1-how-7-key-metrics-stack-up/
author: "Tomasz Tunguz"
---

Recently, we've seen a series of product-driven companies building huge customer bases with tremendous account expansion and terrific sales efficiency. DataDog is no exception. DataDog provides a very popular IT monitoring solution that has grown from its founding in 2010 to a huge business. During that time the product has grown from infrastructure monitoring to application performance management, logging and user experience products. The [company published its S-1](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1561550/000119312519227783/d745413ds1.htm) Friday.

DataDog counts more than 8800 customers, 590 of which spend more than $100k, and 40 of which spend more than a $1M. No customer represents more than 5% of ARR, which means the largest customer isn't spending more than $15M a year - still huge.  

The company's business is predominantly in the US. 24% of revenues are international. 

Additionally, the product expansion has borne fruit. New products generated 35% of bookings last year. 

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/q_auto/f_auto/w_auto/v1566834832/Screen_Shot_2019-08-26_at_08.53.31_goa7dh.png)

The company is currently at $333M in quarterly ARR and generated $265M in trailing 12 months revenues, up from $145M the previous period. Look at that beautiful curve!

To put the company's stellar trajectory in context, I've plotted its metrics relative to two other incredible monitoring companies: NewRelic (NEWR) and AppDynamics (APPD). NewRelic is public and is worth $3.3B as of this morning. Cisco acquired AppDynamics for $3.7B in 2017, the day before their IPO. 

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/q_auto/f_auto/w_auto/v1566833364/apm_revenue_at_ipo_afuvbt.png)At the time of IPO, both DDOG and APPD filed at about $200M in revenue. NewRelic filed with about $85M. This has more to do  with the trend that current IPOs tend to be around $200M and New Relic went public in 2014, when the median revenue at IPO was closer to $100M.  

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/q_auto/f_auto/w_auto/v1566833498/apm_revenue_growth_at_ipo_fxhexl.png)

New Relic and DataDog grew at similar rates in the year before the IPO at about 95% each. AppDynamics grew 150%, quite a bit more. But this chart doesn't tell the whole story. DataDog is 2x the scale of New Relic but growing just as fast. And as for the comparison to AppD...

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/q_auto/f_auto/w_auto/v1566834216/apm_nim_at_ipo_xtyqlp.png)DataDog is effectively profitable compared to its peers, who were at about -65% net income margin. An amazing feat to be growing fast at scale and profitable.

Here's why:

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/q_auto/f_auto/w_auto/v1566834263/apm_se_at_ipo_gpxukc.png)For every dollar of sales and marketing investment, DataDog generates $1.68 of gross profit, 60% better than the others. 

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/q_auto/f_auto/w_auto/v1566834346/apm_ndr_k3l2ap.png)A big part of this sales efficiency is the net dollar retention difference across the group. NDR is the value of a cohort of customers one year after they sign. It includes lost and expanded customers. In DataDog's case, a cohort that generated $100 last year will generate $151 this year, more than 22% higher than NEWR and APPD. 

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/q_auto/f_auto/w_auto/v1566834461/apm_acv_at_ipo_foeefi.png)DataDog's average customer is worth $23k at IPO, compared to $8k for New Relic and $104k for AppDynamics. This average and the data points above about the number of $100k and $1M accounts suggests DataDog serves customers across the spectrum. NewRelic started with smaller accounts. AppDynamics started with enterprise accounts and they met in the mid-market. DataDog is playing across price points. 

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/q_auto/f_auto/w_auto/v1566834574/apm_revenue_per_venture_dollar_at_ipo_zulzfh.png)

One last chart: revenue dollars at IPO per venture dollar invested. This is a measure of turning investment dollars into revenue, a sort of return on equity metric. DataDog's return on equity is 2-4x its peers. 

In every dimension, DataDog is an exceptional business. It has a beautiful and efficient product-led go-to-market that enables it to grow at incredible rates efficiently. Congratulations to the team and the investors in the business on a marvelous company.