Traction
The 50 Percent Rule
“The number one reason that we pass on entrepreneurs we’d otherwise like to back is they’re focusing on product to the exclusion of everything else.” — Marc Andreessen
Spend 50 percent of your time on product and 50 percent on traction. This is the fundamental rule that most startups violate. Traction and product development are of equal importance.
The Bullseye Framework
Outer Ring: What’s Possible
Brainstorm every single traction channel and identify one decent strategy per channel.
Middle Ring: What’s Probable
Run cheap tests on promising channels to answer:
- How much will it cost to acquire customers?
- How many customers are available?
- Are these the customers you want?
Inner Ring: What’s Working
Focus solely on your core channel that will move the needle.
“It is very likely that one channel is optimal. Most businesses actually get zero distribution channels to work. Poor distribution—not product—is the number one cause of failure.” — Peter Thiel
Key Principles
Do Things That Don’t Scale
“Actually startups take off because the founders make them take off… You can’t wait for users to come to you. You have to go out and get them.” — Paul Graham
Traction Goals Define what traction means in hard numbers. Work backward to set clear quantitative subgoals with timelines.
Growth in Spurts Startup growth happens in spurts. Initially slow, then spikes as a useful traction channel is unlocked, then flattens as that strategy saturates. Then you unlock another strategy for another spike.
Phase I (Leaky Bucket) Your product has significant flaws. Run small tests to identify problems. Don’t scale yet.
Phase II (Product-Market Fit) Customers are sticking around. Now is the time to scale up your traction efforts.
Testing Strategy
Middle ring tests shouldn’t spend more than $1,000 or a month’s time in Phase I. When further along, tests may be bigger because you need bigger numbers to move the needle.
Law of Shitty Click-Throughs
“Over time, all marketing strategies result in shitty click-through rates.” — Andrew Chen
Constantly run small traction tests to stay ahead of competitors pursuing the same channels.
Critical Path
The path to reaching your traction goal with the fewest number of steps is your Critical Path. Define clear milestones needed to hit your traction goal.
Traction Channels Overview
- Viral Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- SEO
- Email Marketing
- Sales
- Business Development
- Publicity
- Community Building
- Offline Ads
- Speaking Engagements
- Engineering as Marketing
- Targeting Blogs
- Social/Display Ads
- Offline Events
- Existing Platforms
- Trade Shows
- Unconventional PR
- Affiliate Programs
Key Insights
- Most founders consider only channels they’re familiar with or think they should use—big mistake
- It’s hard to predict which channel will work best until you start testing
- Having product-market fit with no clear traction path is a major problem
- Dropbox tested SEM and found it wouldn’t work ($230 CAC for $99 product), then focused on viral marketing
- By testing traction channels before launch, you can grow rapidly when your product is ready