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# Lessons from Bruce Cleveland
- URL: https://www.antoinebuteau.com/lessons-from-bruce-cleveland/
- Published: 2025-12-05T03:26:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-30T18:43:33.000Z
- Description: Bruce Cleveland is an investor and author of Traversing the Traction Gap. Drawing on his work at Wildcat Venture Partners, he presents the Traction Gap as a framework for examining the difficult pursuit of meaningful traction.
- Author: Antoine Buteau
- Tags: Profile, Investing, Venture Capital Profiles

Bruce Cleveland is a Founding Partner of Wildcat Venture Partners and the author of Traversing the Traction Gap. He was the first investor in Marketo, and earlier held executive roles at Oracle, Apple and Siebel Systems. — [Startup Success: Engineering a Market to Traverse the Traction Gap (podcast page)](https://www.conniewsteele.com/episodes/60?ref=antoinebuteau.com).

![Visual summary of operating lessons from Bruce Cleveland.](https://www.antoinebuteau.com/content/images/2026/07/image-21-optimized-1.webp)

![Infographic for "Lessons from Bruce Cleveland".](https://www.antoinebuteau.com/content/images/2026/07/485657e6-4f3c-4e71-b9a4-18b8933de964-86a5d8ab-9c80-407f-8b8d-7b59b60c05f3-optimized.webp)

## **On The Traction Gap Framework**

1. **On the Source of the Framework:** Cleveland: "the traction gap represents a collection of insights and patterns that tie back to successful startups." — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
2. **On the Question That Started It:** Cleveland: "As I continued to navigate venture capital investments, I started to ask – why do certain companies and products make it?" — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
3. **On Years of Observation:** Cleveland: "you have to spend several years observing what goes well and what doesn't in the real world." — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
4. **On Where Startups Fail:** Cleveland: "The biggest reason why most startups fail is when they move from product development to commercialization." — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
5. **On Where Startups Die:** On the go-to-market phase, Cleveland says: "This is the place where many of them die". — [Startup Success: Engineering a Market to Traverse the Traction Gap (podcast page)](https://www.conniewsteele.com/episodes/60?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
6. **On Three Phases:** Cleveland: "successful startups need to clear three phases to become sustainable businesses." — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
7. **On the Middle Phase:** Cleveland on the go-to-market phase: "I intentionally call out this step “out of order” because it truly is the most important step in the entire journey for an emerging startup." — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
8. **On Minimum Viable Traction:** Cleveland: "minimum viable traction or MVT – which is when you don't need to ask people to invest in you. Instead, the investors are knocking on your door to take their money." — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
9. **On Bridging the Gap:** Cleveland: "The hard part is bridging the traction gap to get there." — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
10. **On Scale:** Cleveland on the go-to-scale phase: "At this point, your product is working and you're not worrying about product/market fit." — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).

## **On Market Engineering**

1. **On Being Ready for the Journey:** Cleveland: "To be ready to make the journey from concept to traction, you should have completed all market engineering and product engineering tasks." — [Book club notes on Traversing the Traction Gap, quoting Cleveland's 2019 interview with M.R. Rangaswami](https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/11/11/book-club-traversing-the-traction-gap-by-bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
2. **On Market Engineering Tasks:** Cleveland: "Your market engineering tasks include category creation/definition, statistically valid market research to confirm there is a legitimate and sizeable market, initial messaging matrix and value propositions, initial pricing and your talk tracks". — [Book club notes on Traversing the Traction Gap, quoting Cleveland's 2019 interview with M.R. Rangaswami](https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/11/11/book-club-traversing-the-traction-gap-by-bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
3. **On Early Market Need:** Cleveland: "If the research is done correctly, then market need can usually be established quite early – just after Ideation." — [Book club notes on Traversing the Traction Gap, quoting Cleveland's 2019 interview with M.R. Rangaswami](https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/11/11/book-club-traversing-the-traction-gap-by-bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
4. **On Describing the Problem:** Cleveland: "The challenge at this early stage – especially with truly innovative offerings – is to not describe the product/solution to the potential buyer/user. Instead, the team should describe the problem or concept". — [Book club notes on Traversing the Traction Gap, quoting Cleveland's 2019 interview with M.R. Rangaswami](https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/11/11/book-club-traversing-the-traction-gap-by-bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
5. **On Research Resources:** Cleveland: "Most startup teams don't have the internal resources – expertise or capital – to perform statistically valid market research." — [Book club notes on Traversing the Traction Gap, quoting Cleveland's 2019 interview with M.R. Rangaswami](https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/11/11/book-club-traversing-the-traction-gap-by-bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
6. **On the Market Beyond Your Customers:** Cleveland says full market research often shrinks into customer research, though "the market is far bigger than your customers, if you have any". — [Book club notes on Traversing the Traction Gap, quoting Cleveland's 2019 interview with M.R. Rangaswami](https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/11/11/book-club-traversing-the-traction-gap-by-bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
7. **On Missing Skills:** Cleveland: "these companies tend to lack market engineering skills." — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
8. **On Market-Product Fit:** Cleveland: "It's not really about product market fit. It's a different concept. It's really around market product fit". — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).
9. **On Market Testing:** Cleveland on consumer goods companies: "They would never launch a new product idea before doing a lot of market testing." — [Book club notes on Traversing the Traction Gap, quoting Cleveland's 2019 interview with M.R. Rangaswami](https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/11/11/book-club-traversing-the-traction-gap-by-bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
10. **On Pressure to Get On With It:** Cleveland: "the pressure from investors or executives to “get on with it” tends to reduce what should be full market research into just customer research". — [Book club notes on Traversing the Traction Gap, quoting Cleveland's 2019 interview with M.R. Rangaswami](https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/11/11/book-club-traversing-the-traction-gap-by-bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).

## **On Startups & Failure**

1. **On the Failure Rate:** Cleveland: "since 80 percent or more of the tech startups fail, they don't really possess some sort of magical skill that allows them to bypass this critical work." — [Book club notes on Traversing the Traction Gap, quoting Cleveland's 2019 interview with M.R. Rangaswami](https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/11/11/book-club-traversing-the-traction-gap-by-bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
2. **On Intuition:** Cleveland: "There is no substitution for intuition." He adds: "You want to encourage it, but not be a slave to it. You need to apply process to validate whether your intuition is correct." — [Book club notes on Traversing the Traction Gap, quoting Cleveland's 2019 interview with M.R. Rangaswami](https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/11/11/book-club-traversing-the-traction-gap-by-bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
3. **On Uneven Investments:** Cleveland: "not every investment hit it big like these two." — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
4. **On Potential That Fails:** Cleveland asks: "how do ideas or products with tons of potential end up failing?" — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
5. **On Research With a Handful of Customers:** Cleveland: "Worse still, full market research gives way to research that involves a handful of customers". — [Book club notes on Traversing the Traction Gap, quoting Cleveland's 2019 interview with M.R. Rangaswami](https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/11/11/book-club-traversing-the-traction-gap-by-bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
6. **On Ten or Fewer Customers:** Cleveland: "A recent study of more than 3,000 companies showed that, on average, most of them surveyed 10 or fewer customers." — [Book club notes on Traversing the Traction Gap, quoting Cleveland's 2019 interview with M.R. Rangaswami](https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/11/11/book-club-traversing-the-traction-gap-by-bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
7. **On Product-Market Fit Rates:** Cleveland: "80-85 percent of startups will fail to reach product/market fit." — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
8. **On Reading the Books:** Cleveland on startup founders: "do yourself a favor, read the books". — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).

## **On Venture Capital & Fundraising**

1. **On Venture in Venture Capital:** Cleveland: "Venture capital is a fairly interesting term or phrase. Because what I found is that there's not a lot of venture in venture capital." — [Follow Your Different podcast: "033 Startup Traction Gap w/ Bruce Cleveland"](https://lochhead.com/bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
2. **On Go-to-Scale Financing:** Cleveland: "That go-to-scale phase, there's a lot of companies that will finance that. And there's a lot of great brands that are out there that wait until you get to that point before they will invest in you." — [Follow Your Different podcast: "033 Startup Traction Gap w/ Bruce Cleveland"](https://lochhead.com/bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
3. **On Big Hits:** Cleveland: "venture capital is in the business of big hits. They're not in the business of singles". — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).
4. **On Spreadsheet Companies:** Cleveland: "I don't invest in spreadsheet companies." — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).
5. **On Recognizing Talent:** On Marketo's founders, Cleveland says: "I can only take credit for recognizing talent." — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).
6. **On Great Outcomes:** Cleveland on what investors want: "They're looking for a great outcome." — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).
7. **On Investments That Didn't Work:** Cleveland: "some of my other investments didn't work out so well." — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).

## **On Leadership & Team**

1. **On Earning Leadership:** Cleveland: "you earn leadership. It's not something that's appointed to you". — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).
2. **On Rank and Leadership:** Cleveland: "you can be a private and be a phenomenal leader. You don't have to be a general officer." — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).
3. **On Getting People to Believe:** Cleveland: "you have to earn that position. You have to get people to believe in what you believe". — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).
4. **On Hard Work After the IPO:** On the days after an IPO, Cleveland says: "There's just a lot of hard work". — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).
5. **On Leading a Tired Team:** Cleveland: "you got to go back to your team and they're tired and they're not sure they can get it done, and you have to sit there in front of it and go, we're going to get it done." — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).
6. **On Daily Documentation:** Cleveland on his team's practice: "everybody in our organization every day begins the morning by kind of documenting things are gonna get done, or they would like to get done." — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).

## **On Revenue & Operations**

1. **On Performance Management:** Cleveland: "we also use this as a performance management system." — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).
2. **On a Holistic View:** Cleveland on the reporting system: "the CEO gets a full holistic picture of everything that's going on in the company". — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).
3. **On an Engineering Marketing Team:** Cleveland on his digital marketing group: "digital marketing is we, our engine, you know, it's an engineering team." — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).

## **Future Outlook & AI**

Sources

1. **Source:** Cleveland's 2019 interview excerpts on market engineering. — [Book club notes on Traversing the Traction Gap, quoting Cleveland's 2019 interview with M.R. Rangaswami](https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/11/11/book-club-traversing-the-traction-gap-by-bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
2. **Source:** Cleveland's article on the origin and phases of the framework. — [Products That Count: "Product Guru Bruce Cleveland on Bridging The Traction Gap"](https://productsthatcount.com/product-guru-bruce-cleveland-on-bridging-the-traction-gap?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
3. **Source:** Podcast conversation about the traction gap and venture capital. — [Follow Your Different podcast: "033 Startup Traction Gap w/ Bruce Cleveland"](https://lochhead.com/bruce-cleveland?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
4. **Source:** Podcast page describing Cleveland's background and framework. — [Startup Success: Engineering a Market to Traverse the Traction Gap (podcast page)](https://www.conniewsteele.com/episodes/60?ref=antoinebuteau.com).
5. **Source:** Video interview covering his career, leadership and venture views. — [Interview with Omar Khateeb: "Bruce Cleveland, Investor, Tech Exec, and Author of Traversing the Traction Gap" (2021, video transcript)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtLw36e1I4&ref=antoinebuteau.com).