> I kind of felt bad for New Relic, they were obviously pioneers in the space

The pioneer was a company called Wily Technology. Wily came quite big, and CA acquired them.

The founders of Wily took their fortune and separately created New Relic and AppDynamics based on Wily technology. CA sued both companies for patent violations. The lawsuit has since been settled.

I wouldn’t feel bad for them. In a way, New Relic should never have existed. The founder already had his pay day.