Traction Book – A Startup Guide to Getting Customers | Hacker News Reader

Traction Book – A Startup Guide to Getting Customers

tractionbook.com

Co-author here.

I actually started exploring this book topic in late 2009 through an initial series of open-ended interviews that involved a lot of people from HN and were discussed on HN quite extensively (when it was much more startup focused). Here is that set: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6r4nAnkQO3VpddRSVwUVDg (e.g. patio11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuzNs-LhC_8, Alexis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enEqAq1x9UQ, Garry Tan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Win0moC4cA).

I started angel investing around the same time and I quickly came to the conclusion that the pursuit of getting traction needed much more structure akin to product development frameworks. I also got increasingly busy with DuckDuckGo, and so it took finding a great co-author and many years to actually get this book across the finish line.

Here's the announcement post from my blog: http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2014/08/get-traction-tod...

Happy to take any questions.

I realize that a lot of growth channels tend to become saturated over time and they no longer make financial sense to invest in. What channels have managed to sustain themselves as profitable growth channels over longer periods of time?

I know this isn't a very satisfying answer, but the truth is it is highly dependent on the specifics of the product and market situation. All nineteen channels we examine in the book have been sustainable growth channels for companies, and one of our core theses is that the underutilized channels for a particular market space can often have the best returns. Unfortunately that means you need to test and that's what our Bullseye framework is all about -- how to approach finding the right traction channel for your particular situation.

That said, paid acquisition channels (Facebook, AdWords, etc.) can be highly profitable - AdWords for almost 10 years now. They just get more expensive and less profitable as time goes on.

How much luck plays into traction? Since the majority of IT landscape is controlled by few platforms (companies), a BD deal with the dominant player (tier 1 player) is all you need for the big pay day. This is where your connections, network and Influential VC investors can play a big role.

Remember, every decent startup has a good product. But not every one of them has the influential connections to make it as a success. Getting traction is not a fair game. In most scenarios it is a hustle.

Hi, Got it on Kindle. Going through it. I will definitely be reading it with great interest. I have a question: What would you say are your top 3 learning/'key insight' from writing this book? [These need not be just top 3 things to do to get traction. But anything that you realized/gained from the whole experience/time that you spent researching/writing/thinking this book.] Edit: corrected typo

Awesome! Top 3 learnings are hard to pull out, but roughly:

1. Most startups fail because they can't get traction, not because they can't build a product.

2. Many startups focus too exclusively on product and ignore traction until they launch. This leads to this situation where a startup will spend 3-6 months building something, launch, and then realize they need to start marketing in order to hit profitability or raise their next round of funding. However, they're starting from square one again and with half the money they started with gone.

We talk about companies that focus on traction and product in parallel. This leads to a dynamic where companies are testing acquisition channels early on and launch to a group of beta customers. Additionally, they have a better understanding of which acquisition channels are effective, which means they can scale those channels up as after they have a more fleshed out product.

3. We found that founders and marketers have a bias towards using channels they know. Many founders never consider channels outside those they have experience with - usually Facebook/Adwords/content marketing - which means they don't acquire customers in unique ways their competition isn't. Thinking holistically about each of the 19 channels is a much better approach, and allows you to potentially acquire customers in a more cost-effective way than your competitors.

Dropbox is a great example of this. There were many file storage companies around before Dropbox, but none that used referral marketing as their main acquisition channel.

Any plans for an EPUB version? I have a Kobo ...

EPUB should be out in 2-3 weeks. Feel free to email me - justin@justinmares.com - and I can send you a PDF.

Awesome! I wish more books were published as epub!

Calibre converts mobi to epub for nothing. http://calibre-ebook.com/ Disclaimer: I love calibre :)

Not everyone does :)

Just bought a copy, and am looking forward to reading it! Where I work is looking at spinning off a piece of software as a "startup" of types, and this will be a great help. Thanks!

Heh, interesting bit of synchronicity... like 30 seconds after I originally clicked on this, somebody comes in and hands me a package. It was my Amazon order with my copy of Traction.

We are one of those startups that has a product, but doesn't have any paying customers yet, so needless to say, I'm champing at the bit to dig into this. If the info in here is actually useful in getting some early traction, this book will far more than pay for itself.

I just finished this book the other day. Great book! As a developer, I'm usually deep in code so I'm not the best at sales and marketing. The book has great examples of what others have done to get traction. My biggest takeaway was that the book helped me get into the sales/marketing mindset which helped generate a few ideas of my own.

Great to hear it!

I've thoroughly enjoyed and learned from every bit of Traction Book thus far, highly recommend to anyone who is considering purchasing.

I originally posted this on the GH AMA but my account was pending moderation and I got skipped... so.. while you're both here:

Do you have any recommendations on using the traction channels to solve the chicken and the egg problem? Or any other specific reading towards solving the C&E problem?

Do you have any methods for tracking conversions in offline channels or is it basically just talking to your customers and asking how they heard about you?

In the book we talk more about offline channel tracking, but basically you can tie them to online activity (e.g. discount codes, unique URLs, etc.) or via the "how did you hear about us?" questions.

For beating chicken and egg problem, generally you want to figure out which side is more difficult to get (demand or supply side) and then think about what traction channels work to acquire people on that side of the C&E problem. Happy to chat more over email if you'd like specific help.

Book is part of Kindle Lending Library, so if you have prime and kindle, you can get it for free (borrow).

Argh, how do you tell? I just paid $9.99 for the Kindle version and I have Prime.

EDIT: I see Lending: Enabled under Product Details.

Mid way through the book. Very good read. I wish we had it a couple years back. But its never too late. As someone said definitely a good way to get marketing mindset. I would read it along with Lean Startup and go in with the right tools.

Am reading Running Lean, Traction, and following growthhackers.com - heady mix :)

Lean Startup struck me as very much in the Business Book mold. The concept is a good one and he spells it out well, but there's really very little there that's of much practical use if you've mostly already bought into the concept.

Nice! It's part of the Kindle library, so I'm able to borrow it for free via Kindle unlimited. Will definitely buy a hard copy if it's as good as it seems to be.

Any idea when we'll see the hardcover copy available direct from Amazon UK?

For non-linear books such as this I often prefer a physical copy as I can very easily flick back and forth between sections.

I could buy the hardcover copy from amazon.com for an additional £7.55 shipping cost but would prefer to purchase from amazon.co.uk and pay less (or nothing) for shipping.

Looks like an interesting read.

How big is the audio download? (I'm on a quota here in the jungle)

Can you name an Android pod app to use with it?

Thanks

I wanted to buy the audio book but castify doesn't want to sell it, they want me to sign up.. why?

Just purchased the audio book.

Thanks for putting out an audio book. I really wish all books were in audio form. There's so much free time where audio is possible but reading is not (driving, walking, running...).

Awesome, thanks!

hmmm, i signed up for the list but can't figure out how to get my 3 free chapters

Or go here - http://snip.ly/5Wwo

Thanks.

Discount for HN readers?

We have no power to discount on Amazon, but you can get the first 3 chapters free here - http://snip.ly/5Wwo

Reply on news.ycombinator.com