Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares is a guide to getting customers for a startup. It first appeared in 2014 from S-Curves Publishing under the subtitle “A Startup Guide to Getting Customers”, and Portfolio published an expanded edition in 2015. Weinberg founded the search engine DuckDuckGo, and Mares worked on revenue at a software startup later bought by Rackspace. Their book answers a question many founders avoid: where will customers come from?
What is Traction about?
The authors start from an observation. Many startups fail because they cannot get enough customers, even with a decent product. Founders love building and treat distribution as something to sort out later. Weinberg and Mares argue the opposite: spend about half of your time on traction from early on, running it in parallel with product work, so you learn which channel fits before money runs out.
The book then describes 19 traction channels. They include viral marketing, public relations, unconventional PR stunts, search engine marketing, social and display ads, offline ads, search engine optimisation, content marketing, email marketing, engineering as marketing (free tools that attract customers), targeting blogs, business development, sales, affiliate programmes, existing platforms, trade shows, offline events, speaking engagements and community building. Each chapter covers how the channel works, interviews with founders who used it well and tactics for a cheap first test.
Tying it together is the Bullseye framework. Brainstorm one idea for every channel, rank the channels in three rings by promise, run quick, cheap tests on the top few, and then focus all your effort on the one that works. When that channel saturates, run Bullseye again.
What are the main lessons for founders?
- Treat customers as half the job. A great product with no distribution plan stalls. Put traction on your weekly agenda from the start.
- Look past your favourite channels. Technical founders lean on content and search; sales-minded ones lean on outreach. The channel you ignore can be the right one, so test outside your comfort zone.
- Test small before betting big. A few hundred euros and a week answer most questions about whether a channel can work for you.
- Focus once something works. Spreading effort across many channels keeps every one of them mediocre. Double down on the winner.
- Expect channels to fade. Ads get pricier and inboxes fill up. Keep a running list of channels to test next.
Who should read Traction?
Read it once you have something people can use and need more of them. It suits founders of software, consumer and B2B startups, marketers joining an early team and solo founders who handle both product and growth. It also works as a reference: each channel chapter stands alone.
Founders still testing whether the problem is real should start with customer interviews. Large companies with established marketing teams will know most channels already.
How do you put Traction to work this week?
- Write one concrete test idea for each of the 19 channels in a single list, even the ones that feel unlikely.
- Pick the three most promising and design a small test for each, with a budget, a deadline and a target number.
- Run the tests, record cost per customer and pick one channel to focus on next month.
To turn your chosen channels into a written plan, use the free Marketing Plan Generator on Fe/male Switch.
Where does Traction fall short?
Many tactics and interviews date from the early 2010s, so chapters on ads, email and platforms feel old, and newer channels such as short video, podcasts and creator partnerships get no coverage. The channel chapters vary in depth, and a few read like a summary of an interview. The book also assumes a tech startup with an online product. For a structured experiment process once you find your channel, read Hacking Growth, and for building an outbound sales engine, read Predictable Revenue.