Traction

About this original series

Traction is an interview series with successful entrepreneurs that demystifies how startup companies get traction for their businesses. Getting traction is the process of acquiring users and customers, and more generally significantly growing businesses.

Episodes of Traction

    • Play Michael Bodekaer - Traction on Blip Traction episodes on Blip

      Michael Bodekaer

      Michael Bodekaer was a founder and CTO of Smartlaunch, which makes software for Internet cafes worldwide and IPO'ed in 2005. Michael explains how they initially got traction by, among other things, giving away their product for free to leading cafes when entering new regional markets. He also talks about his Top 7 Beliefs and his new passion, Project Getaway.

      • Release date
        Jul 17, 2010
      • Runtime
        46:36
    • Play Eric Ries - Traction on Blip Traction episodes on Blip

      Eric Ries

      Eric Ries is the founder of The Lean Startup, a methodology that startups can use to get traction. Eric explains the methodology in detail and answers some very specific questions about it.

      • Release date
        Apr 18, 2010
      • Runtime
        01:01:41
    • Play Patrick McKenzie - Traction on Blip Traction episodes on Blip

      Patrick McKenzie

      Patrick McKenzie is the solo founder of Bingo Card Creator. BCC makes bingo cards for elementary schoolteachers. After achieving traction trough scalable use of SEO and AdWords, Patrick was able to quit his job and start selling software full time. He explains the exact strategies he uses and how they are repeatable in a variety of niches.

      • Release date
        Apr 6, 2010
      • Runtime
        58:45
    • Play Todd Vollmer - Traction on Blip Traction episodes on Blip

      Todd Vollmer

      Todd Vollmer has been involved in enterprise software sales for twenty years, the last twelve helping startups define, implement and execute effective sales processes. Todd lays out a comprehensive framework for how to approach sales from the perspective of a B2B startup or new product launch. Todd explains how it is a numbers game to get potential customers engaged, which he calls the science of selling. Once engaged, he walks through how to execute the sales cycle thereafter by getting the c...

      • Release date
        Apr 1, 2010
      • Runtime
        40:04
    • Play Paul English - Traction on Blip Traction episodes on Blip

      Paul English

      Paul English is the co-founder of Kayak, the travel search engine. He relates how Kayak got traction, including an early deal with AOL and how they launched with 15K searches/day. Paul also gives advice on recruiting and explains how it impacts getting traction in a fundamental way.

      • Release date
        Mar 29, 2010
      • Runtime
        27:38
    • Play Satish Dharmaraj - Traction on Blip Traction episodes on Blip

      Satish Dharmaraj

      Satish Dharmaraj is a partner at Redpoint Ventures, a former angel investor and was CEO of Zimbra, which sold to Yahoo ($350M). Satish gives the investor perspective on getting traction and explains how Zimbra got traction through an open source community, PR and product/market fit. Satish also comments on idea generation, posterous and onebox.com.

      • Release date
        Mar 16, 2010
      • Runtime
        38:24
    • Play Justin Kan - Traction on Blip Traction episodes on Blip

      Justin Kan

      Justin Kan is a founder of justin.tv, the place to watch and record live video. Justin.tv started out as a reality show, and before that the founders had a YC-backed calendar startup (kiko). Justin explains how they made two major pivots and translated initial press about the show into the current business. Justin also talks about scaling and idea generation.

      • Release date
        Mar 8, 2010
      • Runtime
        42:34
    • Play Garry Tan - Traction on Blip Traction episodes on Blip

      Garry Tan

      Garry Tan is a co-founder at posterous, "the dead simple place to post everything." Posterous was part of Y Combinator in the summer of 2008, and immediately got traction after being launched on Techcrunch. In this interview Garry explains how that happened as well as how product development, idea generation, YC, previous experience and execution contributed to their success. He also gives advice on press and customer support.

      • Release date
        Mar 3, 2010
      • Runtime
        42:01
    • Play Steve Welch - Traction on Blip Traction episodes on Blip

      Steve Welch

      Steve Welch is the author of We Are All Born Entrepreneurs, a partner at Dreamit Ventures, and the founder of Mitos, a biotech company that he sold to Parker Hannifin in 2007. In this interview Steve talks about the skills required for entrepreneurs to get traction. He also explains how his company got traction through cold calls, creativity at conferences and product development.

      • Release date
        Feb 26, 2010
      • Runtime
        28:13
    • Play Jimmy Wales - Traction on Blip Traction episodes on Blip

      Jimmy Wales

      Jimmy Wales is a co-founder of WIkipedia and Wikia. Wikia hosts hundreds of popular Wikipedia-like wikis on specific subjects, e.g. star wars. Jimmy explains how each project got traction over time. He also talks about press and vision.

      • Release date
        Feb 17, 2010
      • Runtime
        30:02
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