Market Engineering Resources
Agentic SEO Best Practices Guide
Co-developed by Traction Gap Partners and Innovation Algebra and AI, this guide offers emerging insights to align your strategies with generative AI and market innovation.
Category Design and Surviving as a Startup
On Pipeline Visionaries, host Ian Faison interviews Bruce Cleveland, best-selling author of Traversing the Traction Gapand CEO of Traction Gap Partners, on why most startups fail—and how market engineering can flip the script.
Bruce breaks down how to design or redefine a category, why thought leadership drives sales, and what it takes to become the dominant player in your space. If you’re aiming to lead your market, this episode is your blueprint.
Key insight: Category leaders capture ~76% of profits—and the road to that leadership starts with smart, strategic market engineering.
SEO’s Existential Crisis: How AI Is Rewriting the Web
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND Search is changing—not incrementally, but fundamentally. Over the past two years, search engines and AI platforms have
Not Every Software Startup Needs to Become a Platform—And That’s a Good Thing
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND There’s a persistent narrative in Silicon Valley that, to be “truly valuable,” a software startup must aspire
Why Your Startup Is Burning Cash — The Real Startup Killers
On MedTech’s #1 Podcast, host Omar M. Khateeb interviews Bruce Cleveland on the real reasons 85% of startups fail—and what to do about it. They dive into the Traction Gap Framework, market-product fit, and how to avoid the fatal mistake of hiring sales too early.
Bruce shares how market engineering can multiply a company’s valuation and recounts how he helped shape the Enterprise AI category and scale C3.ai to IPO.
If you’re a founder, executive, or investor, this episode is a must-listen masterclass in building real, durable traction.
PromptOps: Marketing’s New AI Discipline
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND If you’ve been following the trajectory of AI in marketing, you’ve heard the term “PromptOps” climbing board
Are You Ready for the Age of Agent-to-Agent Marketing? How CMOs Can Prepare for the Coming Shift in Buyer Behavior
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND AND THE BRUCE CLEVELAND EXPERT MODEL “Tomorrow’s visibility won’t be won by gaming algorithms, but by engineering
Scaling Early Stage Companies
On LeadGenesys’ Scaling B2B Demand Generation series, Jeff Kostermans sits down with Bruce Cleveland to discuss what it really takes to scale early-stage companies. Drawing from the Traction Gap Framework, Bruce shares how market engineering—category design, positioning, and go-to-market strategy—can make or break a company between MVP and scalable growth.
This episode is packed with tactical insights for founders, GTM leaders, and investors navigating the high-risk early phases of company building.
The Knowledge Worker is Dead
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND A friend of mine and former fierce competitor in the tech industry, Christopher Lochhead, is a founder
Building Companies from Ideation to Scale
On The Bliss Business Podcast, hosts Stephen Sakach, Michael Liwski, and Tullio Siragusa interview Bruce Cleveland on why most companies fail in the go-to-market phase—and how to avoid it. The conversation dives into the Traction Gap Framework, from MVP to Minimum Viable Company, and explores the crucial role of purpose, culture, and emotional intelligence in scaling a business.
Whether you’re a founder, product leader, or investor, this episode offers practical insights into how market engineering can help you build traction, momentum, and lasting value.
Market Engineering Process Guide
Learn the steps of the TGP Market Engineering Process — a must-read for understanding our strategic framework.
Traversing The Traction Gap and The Chasm Visual
This infographic integrates the Traction Gap and Crossing the Chasm frameworks, illustrating a startup’s journey from early product development through market adoption to eventual scale and maturity.
The Traction Gap Overview Visual
This visual overview introduces the Traction Gap framework, outlining the key elements and milestones startups must navigate to successfully grow from idea to scale.
My Digital Twin
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND I have been working with the team at Innovation Algebra – www.innovationalgebra.com– for the past year to
Traction Gap Partners B2B SaaS Reference Sheet
The Traction Gap Partners B2B SaaS Reference Sheet outlines key milestones—MVC, IPR, MVP, MVR, and MVT—detailing revenue, funding, and operational metrics essential for startup growth and scaling.
From Ideation to Scale: Achieving Startup Traction
Discover insights into the journey of startups from initial ideas to scalable businesses. Learn about features strategies and experiences shared by entrepreneurs and experts on gaining traction in competitive markets.
Enterprises and the Innovation Hurdle
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND Geoffrey Moore (the iconic author of “Crossing the Chasm”) and his research highlights the “10% rule,” a
Book Review: Traversing The Traction Gap by Bruce Cleveland
This blog post explains how the Traction Gap Framework, initially designed for startups, is also applicable to large companies. It highlights the framework’s relevance in guiding new products through development phases within corporate structures, aligning with internal objectives for successful market integration.
Key Piece of Advice for Startups
Bruce Cleveland, founder and CEO of Traction Gap Partners, emphasizes the importance of aligning product development with market needs, advising startups to focus on achieving product-market fit before scaling operations.
The Traction Gap Framework: It’s Not Just For Startups
This blog post explains how the Traction Gap Framework, initially designed for startups, is also applicable to large companies. It highlights the framework’s relevance in guiding new products through development phases within corporate structures, aligning with internal objectives for successful market integration.
What’s the idea behind Traversing the Traction Gap
Geoff Moore explains how the TGP framework assists startups in navigating the critical phase between initial product development and achieving market traction, emphasizing the importance of strategic planning and execution during this transitional period.
What’s so Important about MVP Product Market Fit
This video features Geoff Moore discussing the significance of achieving a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and attaining product-market fit. He emphasizes how these concepts are crucial for startups to validate their offerings and ensure alignment with market needs.
The Differences Between Crossing the Chasm & the Traction Gap
This video explores the contrasts of Geoffrey Moore’s “Crossing the Chasm,” focusing on transitioning from early adopters to the mainstream market, with the “Traction Gap,” which addresses the challenges startups face in achieving sustainable growth and scalability.
What is Market Engineering
This video introduces the concept of market engineering, emphasizing its role in designing and improving markets through a structured, interdisciplinary approach. It highlights how this methodology combines economics, computer science, and systems engineering to create efficient, fair, and transparent market mechanisms.