Traction, in Three Measurable Versions You Can Actually Point To
The word traction is one of the more commonly used and less commonly defined terms in early startup writing. Founders hear the word constantly, they know they are supposed to have some, and they cannot really tell what the term is meant to describe, which produces a low-grade anxiety about whether they have any without a clear way to check.
Investors and mentors use the word as though everyone understands what they mean by it, but if you ask three of them for a definition you usually get three different answers, which does not make the anxiety any easier to resolve.
The purpose of this piece is to give you three specific and measurable versions of traction that you can actually point to, so that when someone asks whether you have traction you have a clear answer rather than a vague one.
Traction as consistent user growth
The first version of traction is consistent user growth over time. This is the version most people mean when they use the word without qualification, and the measurable form of it is a monthly count of new users that has been growing for at least three months in a row.
The absolute number is less important than the trajectory, since a startup going from ten to fifteen to twenty-two new users a month has meaningful traction while a startup going from two hundred to two hundred and one to two hundred and three does not, regardless of how the absolute numbers compare.
For this version, what matters is the direction and the consistency, and the honest question to ask yourself is whether your monthly user growth has been trending upward for three months in a row. If the answer is yes, you have this version of traction. If the answer is no, you do not, and no amount of talking about it will make it appear.
Traction as customer retention
The second version of traction is customer retention over time. This is the version that most experienced investors care about the most, since it reflects whether your product is actually doing something valuable rather than whether you are simply good at getting people to try it.
The measurable form is the percentage of customers who are still using the product three months after their first use, and the specific threshold varies by industry, but for most software products, retention above thirty percent at three months is a meaningful signal, and retention below ten percent is telling you the product does not yet fit the market.
For this version, the honest question is whether you are keeping the customers you acquire. If you can point at a specific cohort of customers from three months ago and show that most of them are still around, you have this version of traction. If most of them have quietly disappeared, you do not, and fixing this is more important than acquiring more customers who will also disappear.
Traction as revenue growth
The third version of traction is revenue growth over time. This is the most direct version, and it is often the most respected, since it reflects that customers are willing to pay real money for what you have built.
The measurable form is monthly revenue that has been growing for at least three months in a row, and the growth rate matters more than the absolute number at this stage, since a startup going from a thousand to fifteen hundred to two thousand naira in monthly revenue has real traction while a startup with a hundred thousand naira in flat monthly revenue does not.
For this version, the honest question is whether your revenue has grown across three consecutive months. If yes, you have this version. If no, you do not, and revenue that has been flat or declining is telling you something important that you should not ignore.
The founders who take the time to make the definitions concrete tend to sound much more credible in fundraising conversations than founders who use the word vaguely…
How to use these three
The three versions of traction are not mutually exclusive, and a strong startup often has some form of all three. But early startups usually have one before they have the others, and understanding which one you have first tells you something useful about the stage of your business. Consumer products often develop user growth first, business software often develops retention first, and infrastructure or paid services often develop revenue first. Knowing which pattern you are in helps you communicate honestly to investors and mentors, and it helps you focus on the next signal that is realistic to develop rather than trying to demonstrate a version of traction that your business is not yet at the stage to produce.
The word traction stops being anxiety-inducing once you have three specific things you can measure, and once you can tell someone which of the three you have. The founders who take the time to make the definitions concrete tend to sound much more credible in fundraising conversations than founders who use the word vaguely, since the specificity itself signals that you understand what you are actually doing.
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