TRACTION BOOK
by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
A Startup Guide to Getting Customers
This book will help get you traction. Our goal is to both de-mystify the process and give you an actionable framework to approach getting customers.
Drawing on interviews with…
What is Traction?
Traction is real customers. If you charge for your product, it's real paying customers. If your product is free, it's a real user base. Traction is a signal that your team can produce real results in a real market.
Getting traction is a signal to everyone (including yourself) that your business is less risky. In other words, traction trumps everything.
Product ≠ Customers
If you're starting a company, chances are you have the ability to build a product. Almost every failed startup has a product. What most failed startups don't have are enough customers.
We advocate exploring getting traction in parallel with product development, and to approach doing so in a systematic way that we present called the Bullseye Framework.
Traction Mistakes
1. They don't pursue traction in parallel with product development.
2. They didn't spend enough time pursuing traction.
3. They were biased towards or against certain traction verticals.
4. They didn't take a systematic approach to getting traction.
Traction Book Chapters
- Traction Trumps Everything
- Traction Verticals
- Traction Lenses
- The Bullseye Framework
- Traction Tactics
- Public Relations (PR)
- Non-traditional PR
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Non-SEM Online Ads
- Offline Ads
- Business Development (BD)
- Sales
- Affiliate Programs
- Existing Platforms
- Company Content
- Target Market Blogs
- Engineering as Marketing
- Community Building
- Speaking Engagements
- Offline Events
- Trade Shows
- Email Marketing
About the Authors
Gabriel Weinberg is the Founder of DuckDuckGo and an active angel investor. His previous startup (Opobox) was acquired by United Online. Weinberg has a B.S. from MIT in Physics and an M.S. from MIT in Technology Policy.
Justin Mares is the founder of Roommatefit and director of Revenue at Exceptional Software. His last startup, Cloudfab, was acquired in February 2012. Justin is a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh.
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