Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers

Justin Mares · Gabriel Weinberg

Aug 2014 · S Curve Publishing

About this ebook

Most startups end in failure.

Almost every failed startup has a product. What failed startups don't have are enough customers.

Traction Book changes that. We provide startup founders and employees with the framework successful companies use to get traction. It helps you determine which marketing channel will be your key to growth.

"If you can get even a single distribution channel to work, you have a great business." -- Peter Thiel, billionare PayPal founder

The number one traction mistake founders and employees make is not dedicating as much time to  traction as they do to developing a product. This shortsighted approach has startups trying random tactics -- some ads, a blog post or two -- in an unstructured way that will likely fail.

We developed our traction framework called Bullseye with the help of the founders behind several of the biggest companies and organizations in the world like Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), Paul English (Kayak.com), Alex Pachikov (Evernote) and more. We interviewed over forty successful founders and researched countless more traction stories -- pulling out the repeatable tactics and strategies they used to get traction.

"Many entrepreneurs who build great products simply don't have a good distribution strategy." -- Mark Andreessen, venture capitalist

Traction will show you how some of the biggest internet companies have grown, and give you the same tools and framework to get traction. 

Ratings and reviews

"Traction" provides a stellar marketing framework for startups. It is analogous with "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries making the book that much more valuable. "Traction" touches on lessons that should be, but aren't always taught in Business school and the book has largely shaped my marketing philosophy. Be sure to read this book with a notebook beside you; Ideas will fly left, right and center. Also, be sure to check out the resources the book provides. I use these resources and templates on daily basis as a marketer for my startup (check out profilze.com). Overall, you cannot go wrong reading this book and engaging with its ideas. 5 stars!

Must read, I am myself an startup founder and this book is just crazy

This book will now be a mandatory reading for my students.

About the author

Gabriel Weinberg is the CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo, the search engine that doesn't track you. He is also an active angel investor and writer, based in Valley Forge, PA. Previously he was the CEO & Co-founder of Opobox, which was sold to United Online in 2006. Weinberg holds two degrees from MIT, a B.S. in Physics (2001) and an M.S. in Technology and Policy (2005).

Justin Mares is the former Director of Revenue at Exceptional, a software company that Rackspace acquired for 8 figures in 2013. He has previously founded two startups (one acquired, one bust) and runs a growth meetup in San Francisco. You can find his writing on marketing and personal-development on his blog, justinmares.com.