Traversing the Traction Gap

Every now and then a book comes along that challenges your thought process, engaging you to look at things from a different perspective. "Traversing the Traction Gap" is one of those books.Taking from his experiences as an entrepreneur and investor, Bruce looked to see what made companies successful. Focusing on products, revenue, management and systems he looks at what traction a company needs to gain to move from the idea stage all the way up to scaling. He identifies the pitfalls and milestones entrepreneurs will encounter and provides a roadmap to traverse the mine fields, gaining traction as you go along and in the process be better positioned to attract capital.While the book was written with start-up companies in mind, I found the book equally applies to an acquisition I am involved with, providing the same insight and direction on where the company is positioned with the traction gap and what is needed to move the company forward."Traversing the Traction Gap" is an excellent book for everyone and a must for any SaaS company regardless of what stage it's in. It should be shared with your management team and used as a guide in directing your company. It's the new business staple in your library along side Geoffrey Moore’s "Crossing the Chasm".Thanks for taking the time and effort to write this book Bruce.

“Traversing The Traction Gap” is a master class for anybody that aspires to make ‘something magic happen’ with their startup. Bruce demystifies arguably the most critical and difficult phase – go to market – for startup businesses in a way nobody has done before. He introduces a new paradigm for how to create and define your category, design and launch your initial product, and work your way toward minimum viability, then repeatability, and ultimately to the most coveted pre-scale requisite of traction.The book is heavy on substance, with recommendations for processes and action items that anyone can execute, and is backed by significant research and case studies. It serves as a framework for how to sequence product and marketing efforts in an early stage business, and can save those who absorb its lessons a lot of pain and heartbreak.Additionally, he provides invaluable guidance for capitalization strategies. He exposes avoidable mistakes and pitfalls for founders to consider, and in so doing, does considerable violence to the existing venture capital investment model practiced by many firms; something long overdue.If you’re a founder or early stage team member at a business that’s anywhere between idea phase and multiple quarters of significant top line growth, read this book immediately. It’s required on our team.

This book should be one of the must-have reads for all startup founders.Founding and leading a tech startup requires a huge amount of knowledge, and it's difficult to compile everything so your strategy runs effectively in those first years.When are you doing what, with what priorities, at what stage of funding and traction etc?If these aren't done with precision, the future of that startup is greatly at risk.It's explained with more clarity and structure than anywhere I've seen.I'd say this book is REQUIRED READING for any first-time tech startup entrepreneur.You'll be able to clearly set your strategy, stage by stage, as you start and move forward in those most difficult first years.

Today's digital entrepreneur is in luck, with so many terrific books on how to build a rapid-scale technology company. The Lean Startup, Zero To One, and Blitzscaling are three must reads. Add to this list, Traversing the Traction Gap, by Bruce Cleveland. The author lays out a schedule of milestones and schedules that is essential to understand if the goal is to raise rounds of capital at increasing valuations to fund rapid-scale growth without dilution. Cleveland is that rare tech CMO (formerly at Siebel Systems and now at enterprise AI leader, C3.ai) who understands the interplay of marketing, finance and capital. no doubt because he is also a venture capitalist. Traversing the Traction Gap should be mandatory reading at business schools. A bonus: It happens to be fun to read, too.

While I agree with many of the reviewer comments here, I think the true brilliance of this book is it's very simple but powerful insight: reverse the order of product-market fit to rather design the start-up based on market-product fit. Why? Because if you are not developing a new solution (and category) to a present market problem you're likely to end up being a solution looking for a problem. As entrepreneurs we suffer incredible pain, and we make sacrifices nobody else is willing to endure. So, any edge we can gain to increase the probability of success AND achieve a size of success commensurate with the risks and sacrifices taken, well that's what it's all about, right? Can I get a hell-yeah?!Thanks Bruce for this gift worth far more than the price on the cover.

The book fully reflects the journey that an entrepreneur must reach from the creation of a product of value for customers, the go to market strategy and the scale phase combining the knowledge of prominent leaders of startups, investors and real cases. The author adds different milestones (MVC, IPR, MVR, MVT) to the well-known MVP, explains how to move from one to the other and thus strategically direct the startup, showing where to appropriately allocate resources (time and money) in product, team, revenue and systems as the main pillars of the business. It should be mandatory reading for entrepreneurs, angel investors, VCs, techies and all those people who want to approach the world of innovation from a real and not theoretical point of view.

Really good content for technical/product founder that are finding it challenging to resonate with the investment audience

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I am a founder of an early stage tech company based in Paris.This is one of the best business book I have read this past 2 years. (my other favorites are: Zero to One, The lean Startup and The One Thing).Here is my top 5 reasons why I love this book :1/ A business game changerThis book has really inspired me and pushed me to change some things we needed to improve on in my company.2/ A Framework if you "try" to traversing the traction gapWe are just after the IPR and moving to MVP and then hopefully will get to MVR and MVT 🤨. If you want to know what those acronyms really mean (I specifically like the definition that is given of MVP) : read the book !There has been a great effort to define inflection points that are critical in a company journey. It is just good to have them clear on your mind with a a framework that guides you to move from one point to another.On top of the framework you will find tools and hacking stuff that are really hands on.3/ Know why & what is key in the different stage for raising moneyEven if I have approached successful founders and VCs to get advices, the guidance in this book is just fantastic. It is just key to understand that you not only need a product to go to market but also a strong market engineering to avoid the "kiss of death".4/ Numbers - Data-DrivenThere is plenty of real, hard numbers that you will not find anywhere else and that lot's of VCs or founders are trying to keep secret....as if they were magicians not willing to share the secret of their trick. This book gives you clarity on the magnitude of the numbers and more importantly WHY they are so important to reach. At the same time it gives you a clear guidance on why you should also build decisions on numbers not just on "gut feeling" (but still finding the right balance with your instinct to know where to start)For those who are in Europe that may think "this is just an other American book for Americans", I can testify that there is probably an epsilon factor to apply to some numbers to adapt it to our European market (for instance average salaries may be different so cash burn may slightly be different) BUT overall it does not change the magnitude of the numbers given and it is still very very relevant and interesting.5/ Remarkable examples to highlight key talking pointsCompanies that are taken as examples or people cited in this book included some of my best professional experiences like Workday or anecdotes from leaders like Monte Zweben and of course lot's of example from game changer companies like Salesforce, Box, Apple,...So, what is missing in this book?I guess that a French translation would be appreciated for French speaking countries 🇫🇷This book is pragmatic and focusing on guidance to "traversing the traction gap" which in my knowledge has never been covered so far as deeply and clearly as in this book. To sum up a must read for any startup (and those who are launching new products too) 👍Last thing, the reading on Kindle is just very good including the graphics and tables.Hats off to Bruce Cleveland & Wildcat Ventures for compiling and providing such a framework !

This book is a must read for entrepreneurs, Investors and Corporate strategists. Startup ecosystem often find it difficult to look for strategy and direction that will provide needful impetus to startups to higher echelon of growth. The author explains in details why startups fail and then proposes a robust framework that will enhance the success predictability of the startups. He has been a successful entrepreneur and now runs a Venture Fund with great deft and ability. So, he brings the wide range of experience from both the world that makes reading of this book a great insightful journey.

A must read for startups who are into initial sales and need to scale. Great insight into building repeatable sales before prematurely jumping into ‘growth’.