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Traction applies to everything. Look at the hardware startups that used Kickstarter to gain traction before shipping! Lockitron and pebble for example. But you
by pbiggar 13y ago
Traction applies to everything. Look at the hardware startups that used Kickstarter to gain traction before shipping! Lockitron and pebble for example.
But you can get traction in lots of ways. Got 200 customers on your waiting list? 10000 people follow your blog? 20 enterprise customers with verbal commitments to buy? Those are all traction.
- dakrisht 13y agoI agree with you that having customers on a waiting list or a pre-order list is a great move with regards to pre-money traction, but there are certainly companies out there with proprietary technologies that require funding before they can be brought to life. Particularly, in the life sciences, biotechnology, and other high-IP areas, it's not very intelligent (or feasible) to launch a Kickstarter campaign in order to get traction. But you make a _great_ point - traction doesn't apply to just users, which is something this particular post heavily emphasizes. Having 10,000 blog followers, pre-orders, enterprise customers, commitments, even endorsements from influencers who can promote and/or sell the product once commercialized, are all traction. Totally. Even IP is traction if done right. Additionally, two years ago we didn't have any crowdfunding and there were plenty of companies that raised money without any "traction" as it's commonly understood in the Techcrunch arena today.