The latest from Wildcat and our portfolio companies.
December 15, 2020
Wildcat Venture Partner, Geoff Moore, shares how the Traction Gap Framework supports the Chasm Framework and how a startup needs to utilize both in order…
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December 13, 2020
Wildcat Venture Partner, Geoff Moore, shares the impact of the Crossing the Chasm and Traction Gap Frameworks. Get more information on all things Traction Gap…
December 11, 2020
Wildcat Founding Partner, Bruce Cleveland, discusses the key takeaway from the book "Traversing the Traction Gap". Get more information on all things Traction Gap here.…
Wildcat Venture Partner, Geoff Moore, discusses what he has learned using both the Traction Gap and the Chasm Frameworks as an investor at Wildcat. Get…
Wildcat Founding Partner, Bruce Cleveland, shares why he wrote the book "Traversing the Traction Gap". Get more information on all things Traction Gap here. Check…
Wildcat Founding Partner, Bruce Cleveland, discusses the five value inflection points of the Traction Gap Framework. Get more information on all things Traction Gap here.…
Wildcat Venture Partner, Geoff Moore, shares his take on whether or not you should build your startup for you (the entrepreneur) or the investor. Get…
Wildcat Venture Partner, Geoff Moore, discusses the big idea behind his book "Crossing the Chasm". Get more information on all things Traction Gap here. Check…
Wildcat Founding Partner, Bruce Cleveland, gives a brief overview of the four pillars of the Traction Gap Framework - Product, Team, Revenue, Systems - and…
December 10, 2020
Wildcat Founding Partner, Bruce Cleveland, gives a brief overview of the Traction Gap Framework. Get more information on all things Traction Gap here. Check out…
November 5, 2019
Ep. 60 - Startup Success: Engineering A Market to Traverse the Traction Gap - with Bruce Cleveland It takes guts, determination, and a healthy dose…
November 4, 2019
Wildcat Founding Partner, Bruce Cleveland, on how to use the book "Traversing the Traction Gap" as a guide to help your startup achieve goals and…
October 28, 2019
Wildcat Venture Partner, Geoff Moore, on the importance of achieving a minimum viable product (MVP) and product market fit. Get more information on all things…
September 23, 2019
Wildcat Founding Partner, Bruce Cleveland, discusses Market Engineering and why it is critical to startup success. Get more information on all things Traction Gap here.…
September 16, 2019
Wildcat Venture Partner, Geoff Moore, discusses the differences between the Chasm and Traction Gap frameworks and how they complement each other. Get more information on…
September 9, 2019
Wildcat Founding Partner, Bruce Cleveland, discusses his key piece of advice for startup founders based on his book "Traversing the Traction Gap." Get more information…
Wildcat Venture Partner, Geoff Moore, on the big idea behind the Traction Gap Framework. Get more information on all things Traction Gap here. Check out…
July 24, 2019
In February this year, we released, Traversing the Traction Gap. The purpose of the book is to provide a roadmap — the Traction Gap Framework —…
July 9, 2019
Range of classes to focus on formula for helping early stage startups scale and reduce risk of failure using Wildcat Venture Partners' Traction Gap Framework®…
June 26, 2019
I spent the early part of last week speaking with enterprise thought leaders and executives from some of the world’s largest organizations at the Enterprise Transformation…
Accelerate Innovation
June 21, 2019
Over the last decade, there has been a fundamental shift in the way venture capital is being deployed. “Early stage” funding has dramatically changed with…
June 4, 2019
As we continue our exploration of the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step approach that startup teams can use to go from ideation to preparing…
Young Upstarts
June 1, 2019
This is the second in a three-part series that aims to help you understand the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step approach that startup teams…
May 23, 2019
Product ideation can be the most exciting stage in your starting a company. And once you are able to establish your MVP or most viable…
Bruce Cleveland of Wildcat Ventures (wildcat.vc) speaking at Lean Cutlure Meetup on Tue-Apr-23-2019. His talk was based on his new book "Traversing the Traction Gap"…
May 22, 2019
Wildcat’s CEO Interview Blog Series features in-depth interviews with CEOs who have successfully traversed The Traction Gap®. In each blog, we focus on the CEOs’…
May 13, 2019
Welcome to the NVCA Blog series, Building Better, where we celebrate the dynamic relationship between our VC members and their innovative portfolio companies around the…
National Venture Capital Association
May 10, 2019
Bruce Cleveland attended the United States Military Academy and is a Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners, a venture firm that invests in market disruptors and…
May 8, 2019
This is the first in a three-installment series that is designed to help you understand the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step survival guide for…
May 3, 2019
Every entrepreneur dreams of turning their big idea into a real business. That said, 85 percent of startups end up failing to get off the…
May 2, 2019
The book Traversing the Traction Gap explains how you can take an idea and turn it into a $B+ outcome using the Traction Gap Framework®.…
Wildcat Venture Partners
April 29, 2019
Wildcat’s CEO Interview Blog Series features in-depth interviews with CEOs who have successfully traversed the Traction Gap. In each blog, we focus on the CEOs’…
April 16, 2019
Bruce Cleveland, founding partner of Wildcat Venture Partners, discusses the Traction Gap Framework and why he wrote the best selling book, Traversing the Traction Gap.…
In 1991, Geoffrey Moore published the book, Crossing the Chasm which shed a bright light on how technology companies should think about markets. It made…
April 11, 2019
Some decisions are easier than others. Unlike other investments we have made, we knew from the very beginning Vlocity would be a winner. Why? We…
April 9, 2019
Part 2 - Thoughts on Current Enterprise Market In Part 1 yesterday, Bruce Cleveland talked about the framework in his new book, Traversing the Traction…
Deal Architect
April 3, 2019
April 2, 2019
Bruce Cleveland, who many readers may remember from his Siebel days is now an investor and has a new book out, Traversing the Traction Gap.…
March 25, 2019
Why do most startups fail? Today, Bruce Cleveland joins Follow Your Different for a master class in building a massively successful B2B and why market engineering is…
Follow Your Different
March 22, 2019
March 14, 2019
Founding partner at Wildcat Venture Partners, Bruce Cleveland understands the genetics of startups – why most flop, and why a few make it across the…
Sand Hill
February 25, 2019
Minimum Viable Traction (MVT) marks the final value inflection point, the end of the Traction GapTM. Once you arrive there, congratulations! You have successfully traversed…
February 20, 2019
An Interview with Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners. Recently, David Baeza, CEO at Buttered Toast, sat down with Bruce Cleveland, a Founding Partner at Wildcat…
Early stage venture capital firms specialize in incubating start-ups and taking them to scale. This entails working through a series of deep changes in both strategy…
February 19, 2019
Okay, so you’ve declared Minimum Viable Product (MVP). You’ve nailed your value propositions and your pricing and terms, and you are confident that your category…
February 14, 2019
Marketers have an opportunity to proactively help board of directors understand marketing — but most are missing out. I’ve sat in many board meetings over…
CMS WiRE
February 11, 2019
By the time your startup has reached a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), it’s already come a long way. What was once simply an idea now…
February 4, 2019
Every successful startup begins with an idea for a new product or service. In the go-to-product phase, significant market research is required to ensure that…
January 28, 2019
The go-to-market phase — as outlined in the Traction GapTM Framework — begins with a startup’s first product release, and ends with market validation and a foundation to…
January 22, 2019
The Traction Gap® Framework offers a way to think about the key stages in a startup’s early life. However, the go-to-market phase isn’t a straight shot,…
January 16, 2019
To succeed, every startup has to pass through three phases: Go-to-Product, Go-to-Market, and Go-to-Scale. In the go-to-product phase, founders are blessed with a massive amount…
January 11, 2019
The evidence is clear: More than 80% of startups fail. Every year, somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 startups are founded. (And the real number may…
January 2, 2019
First of all, I want to thank Martin for this thoughtful blog posting which I am reprinting in full here, interspersed with comments from me…
October 25, 2018
The most pervasive and pernicious SaaS business model myth? It’s that “Professional services revenues are ‘bad’ and have no place in a SaaS company’s revenue…
Forbes
July 29, 2018
According to data collected from product failure rate surveys sponsored by MIT Sloan, University of Michigan, Harvard and many others, the sad truth is that…
June 12, 2018
Did you miss it? Revenue: Accelerating, Scaling & Driving Growth On June 12th, Wildcat Venture Partners and the Traction Gap Institute hosted the latest event…
February 28, 2018
How to get a company off the ground The Traction Gap is defining the second stage of new-venture creation In his 2011 book, The Lean Startup,…
Chicago Booth Review
February 14, 2018
Four insights from Chicago Booth’s Waverly Deutsch for entrepreneurs hoping to cultivate scalable success How does an entrepreneur know when it’s time to go to…
February 12, 2018
Most savvy entrepreneurs know that getting a warm introduction to a venture firm substantially improves their odds of getting a meeting — and hopefully an investment. But,…
January 18, 2018
During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners, one of the early employees at Oracle, as…
December 14, 2017
In an ideal world, the most open and least stressful relationships startup founders have would be with their board members. Unfortunately, for many founders the…
November 21, 2017
The top five reasons startups fail are: 1. no market need, 2. ran out of cash, 3. not the right team, 4. get out-competed and…
Huffington Post
October 20, 2017
During this video clip, Phil explains how the company culture and values were such a success story at Marketo and that success was based on…
On March 2, 2017, Traction Gap Institute (TGI) joined Wildcat Venture Partners, Velocity Coaching and Shasta Ventures to host Building the Perfect Team. The event featured an interview with Phil Fernandez, founding…
October 19, 2017
On March 2, 2017, Traction Gap Institute (TGI) joined Wildcat Venture Partners, Velocity Coaching and Shasta Ventures to host Building the Perfect Team. The event featured…
October 18, 2017
October 10, 2017
October 3, 2017
September 6, 2017
Did you miss it? Wildcat co-hosted How Legends Design & Dominate Categories On September 6, Traction Gap Institute (TGI) joined Wildcat Venture Partners to host How Legends…
August 14, 2017
August 3, 2017
On March 2, 2017, Traction Gap Institute (TGI) joined Wildcat Venture Partners, Velocity Coaching and Shasta Ventures to host Building the Perfect Team. During this video…
Velocity Coaching partnered with Traction Gap Institute to interview 17 B2B Founders who successfully took their startups through the Traction Gap to attain repeatable traction…
May 25, 2017
How the Culture of “Killing It” Hurts Founders and Companies Silicon Valley has a problem that not enough people are talking about. Great companies are…
March 13, 2017
I have been fortunate to have been either an operating executive or investor in some very transformational software companies in Silicon Valley, joining or investing…
March 12, 2017
Venture capital used to be a cottage industry, with very few investing in tomorrow's products and services. Oh how times have changed. While there are…
Vator.tv
March 2, 2017
Did you miss it? Wildcat co-hosted Building the Perfect Team On March 2, Traction Gap Institute (TGI) joined Wildcat Venture Partners, Velocity Coaching and Shasta Ventures…
Wildcat Venture Partners Closes on New Fund to Help Companies Traverse the “Traction Gap” Four Established Founding Partners Share Operating Experience and Best Practices to…
January 31, 2017
First, some bad news: A Series B crunch may be upon us. According to Mattermark, in the first quarter of 2016, Series B rounds dropped…
January 30, 2017
Before “crossing The Chasm’, startups must first successfully “traverse the Traction Gap”. The Traction Gap is a period in a startup’s lifecycle that begins just…
January 25, 2017
Watch the video from the event here. DATE AND TIME Wed, January 25, 2017 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM PST LOCATION Yelp Headquarters 140 New…
September 28, 2016
Wildcat Venture Partners Hosts Traction Gap Event with Key Technology Executives Announces the Traction Gap Institute to Enable Entrepreneurs to Traverse the Traction Gap Wildcat…
September 19, 2016
To successfully scale as a company and to help ensure future rounds of financing, startups must understand the framework of the Traction Gap and abide…
PeHub
“I know it when I see it,” said Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, talking about pornography. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs get much the same answer from…
August 23, 2016
As I discussed earlier this month, 2016 has seen a significant drop in Series B financings. In order to successfully secure follow on rounds of…
August 20, 2016
Elizabeth Burstein, Principal at Wildcat Venture Partners and Ex-PM at Linkedin sat down with host of Yours Productly podcast, Ravi Kumar. She discussed the Traction Gap framework,…
Yours Productly
August 8, 2016
Venture capital’s grief might be wider than the industry thought: A Series B crunch may be upon us. And this puts more pressure on entrepreneurs…
PeHUB Network
June 8, 2016
Last week, Wildcat hosted “Traversing the Traction Gap,” where we debuted the Traction Gap – a framework that describes progressive stages of startup maturity, not…
June 3, 2016
Venture Firm Debuts Innovative Framework to Guide Startups through the Go-to-Market Phase Menlo Park, CA – June 3, 2016 – In an era when early…
May 26, 2016
My friend and a partner at Wildcat Venture Partners, Bruce Cleveland, along with his associates, has come up with an idea that helps explain why…
CRM Buyer