- Lead with your single strongest signal, not a list of every number you have.
- Show a trend over time with real dates, not one big total.
- Y Combinator advises founders to make their slides simple and legible so the point is obvious at a glance[1].
- Before revenue, show pilots, letters of intent, waitlist conversion or retention.
What counts as traction
Investors read traction as evidence that a market wants your product. The closer a number is to money and repeat behaviour, the more it counts. Revenue, paying customers and retention are the strongest signals. Signed pilots and letters of intent come next. Waitlists and active users help if they are growing. Followers, press and awards rarely move a decision on their own.
Show a trend, not a total
"₹12 lakh revenue" is a fact. "₹12 lakh revenue, up from ₹2 lakh six months ago, growing 35% month on month" is traction. A simple bar or line chart by month, with every month labelled, is usually all the slide needs. Write the date of the latest number on the slide, so nobody wonders whether it is old.
If you have no revenue yet
- Pilots: name the type of customer and what they agreed to, even if the name itself is confidential.
- Letters of intent: how many, and what they are worth if they convert.
- Waitlist conversion: what share of people who joined actually used the product.
- Retention: how many early users came back in week four. Even fifty users with strong retention is a real signal.
- Speed: what you built and learned in how many weeks.
Keep it honest
Investors check. A traction number that does not match your data room, or a chart with an axis that does not start at zero, costs more trust than a small number shown plainly. Our guide to how investors read a pitch deck explains why every number needs a date and a source.