Zero to traction

zero to traction
it’s really hard.

today’s talk:
traction, traction,
traction, traction,
traction, traction
... but how to get it?

ﬁrst, you need
product/market ﬁt.
then you can optimize
for growth.

0
12.5
25
37.5
50
post Product/Market ﬁtpre P/M ﬁt
traction.

product/market ﬁt
When people who know they want your product
are happy with what you’re offering
... then you’re ready to shift your focus from product to
distribution and “win the market.”

what P/M ﬁt looks like
Consumer products:
Usage 3 out of every 7 days
Organic growth of 100s of signups/day
30% users are active the day after signup
Clear path to 100,000 users

what P/M ﬁt looks like
SaaS products:
5% conversion rate from free-to-paid
3X CPA to LTV ratio
<2% monthly churn rate
Clear path to $100k MRR

if you have that,
just add water.
Email me:
voodoo@gmail.com
Read more:
http://andrewchen.co

what if you don’t have
product/market ﬁt?

then get it done,
before you fail.
Most startups fail before reaching P/M ﬁt.
Usually it takes years, not months, to reach it

product/market ﬁt,
the easy way.

choose your own
difﬁculty.
(But really, you should take it easy on yourself)

pre-existing product
category
Ideally, many customers who know they want your
product.
They are already looking.They know how to compare
and shop for products like yours.

very large # of
customers “pulling”
Ideally, there’s a huge market of pre-existing “pull” for
your product.Validate with searches, ads, etc.
A big market means there’s often room to segment.

lots of successful
competition
Ideally there’s lots of competition with traction. More
datapoints to ﬁgure out what the true MVP looks like.
However, ideally fragmented or incompetent or on a
different platform.

clear axes of
competition
Ideally, it’s very clear how you are trying to substitute
for a pre-existing product. Simpler, but different.
Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd
Blue Ocean Strategy

build for yourself
Ideally, you’re a superuser of your own product
category, so you can understand what competitive
dimensions work.

Easiest short-term
path: Clone something
that already has P/M ﬁt
If the market keeps growing, then new users will come
to you just to try it out.
Lots of problems through.

More balanced:
Clone 80%,
innovate on 20%
Make sure your innovation is fundamental and can be
experienced in the ﬁrst 60 seconds in the UX.
Analyze and pick a clear competitive dimension.

metaphors often lead
to “fake” markets
X forY
“Pinterest for business” vs “Pinterest for dogs”
The substitution test

too much “minimum”
in MVP
Competing in existing markets means there’s a baseline.
Build something simpler, and different, but you’ll want to
focus on switching people.

technology in search of
a problem

very lean startup, but
terrible market and
product choices.

“throwVC money and
MBAs at the problem”
Once it works, then it’s an optimization problem to
ﬁgure out how to distribute it cheaply to as many
people as possible.
Usually through paid ads, SEO, or virality.

Paid ads
Get this equation to work:
LTV = 3 * CPA

Viral loops
# invites/user * invite acceptance > 1

SEO
% content creation * # created * Google Magic

just add water.
Email me:
voodoo@gmail.com
Read more:
http://andrewchen.co

Zero to traction

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