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If you are an entrepreneur seeking funding who has pitched a VC or angel investor and they passed citing they want to see more traction, this could mean one of two things:

1. We genuinely want you to come back when your further along with profit, revenue, customers, users, etc; OR
2. It is our passive-aggressive way of saying no but keeping the door slightly open in case you become the next big thing

What exactly is traction?

Traction is hard to define.  It’s a bit like porn actually.  When Supreme Court judge Justice Potter Stewart was asked to define porn, he stated (we are paraphrasing) “I cannot define what porn is but I know it when I see it.”  Traction suffers from the same characteristic. You will know when you have it, and the venture capitalist will know it when they see it.

How do you know if you don’t have traction?

If you’re asking yourself this, you probably don’t have it.  Not having traction is pretty easy to define, i.e., you have minimal profit, revenues, customers, users and the growth rates of any of these metrics are also not interesting.   The following entrepreneur’s pitch is also a great example of not having traction.

If you are an entrepreneur with traction seeking funding, try the Funding Recommendation Engine (FRE).  It’s free and takes 5 minutes.  That means you have nothing to lose and a list of potential investors to gain.   Get started now by going here.

A skeptical soul?  Learn more about the FRE here.

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