The Traction Slide: What to Show at Seed, Series A, and Series B

What Traction Is

Traction is evidence that your business is working. It answers the question: "Have you found customers? Are they paying? Are they staying?"

At seed stage, traction is customer interest. At Series A, traction is revenue and unit economics. At Series B, traction is growth and market leadership.

The form of traction changes as you grow, but the principle is the same: show investors that your assumptions about the business are proving true.

What to Show at Seed Stage

At seed stage, you have limited traction. Most seed-stage companies have no revenue or minimal revenue. What you have is customer validation.

Customer Validation

The strongest seed traction is customer validation: evidence that people in your target market care about your problem and your solution.

Forms of customer validation at seed:

Customer emails or quotes. Actual messages from potential customers describing the problem and asking when your solution will be available.
Letters of intent. Written commitment from a customer to buy your product (even if at a discount, even if for a pilot).
Beta signup waitlist. Hundreds or thousands of signups for early access.
Pilot customers. Companies using your product (even if free) and providing feedback.
Press mentions. Coverage in media describing your problem space or your solution.
Conference talks. Invitations to speak about your domain expertise or the problem you are solving.

How to Showcase Seed Traction

A good seed traction slide looks like this:

Headline: "150 beta signups in three weeks. 20 active pilot customers."

Body: Show logos of pilot customers. Include a quote from a customer describing the problem and their interest in the solution. Show the beta signup momentum (a small chart). Show the most compelling customer email.

At seed, you are not showing revenue. You are showing that thoughtful people in your target market are paying attention to your solution.

Red Flags at Seed

Investors will be suspicious if:

Your pilot customers are all friends, family, or other founders. (Reach outside your network.)
You have not talked to customers at all. (Do this before you pitch.)
You are claiming thousands of signups but cannot name a single pilot customer. (Signups without engagement is a vanity metric.)

What to Show at Series A

At Series A, you have paying customers and you have revenue. The traction slide changes from "customer interest" to "customer proof."

The MRR Growth Chart

If you have it, always include an MRR growth chart. This single chart tells more story than any other metric on your traction slide.

A chart that shows steady month-over-month growth tells an investor that your business is working. A chart that shows acceleration (month-over-month growth rate increasing) tells an investor that you are gaining momentum.

Example MRR trajectory at Series A:

This is excellent. 650 per cent MRR growth in a year. This chart alone would justify a Series A conversation.

Customer Count

How many customers do you have? At Series A, this should be measured in dozens or low hundreds.

Example: "45 customers, growing at 12 customers per month."

Key Customer Logos

Show recognisable brands or well-known companies in your target market. These provide proof that real companies are buying.

Pro tip: Get permission from customers before showing their logos. Most customers are happy to be shown as references in your pitch deck, but you should ask.

Unit Economics

Show CAC, LTV, and payback period. These prove that your unit economics work.

Example metrics:

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): 12,000 pounds
ACV (Average Contract Value): 30,000 pounds per year
LTV (Lifetime Value): 180,000 pounds (assuming 6-year average customer life)
CAC Payback Period: 5 months

CAC payback in under six months is excellent. Under 12 months is good. Over 12 months raises questions about whether the unit economics work.

NRR (Net Revenue Retention)

NRR measures whether your existing customers are spending more, the same, or less than a year ago.

Formula: (Beginning ARR + expansion revenue - churn) / Beginning ARR × 100

Example: You start the year with 100k ARR. During the year, customers expand by 20k (upsells and new product adoption). Customers churn 10k. End of year ARR: 100k + 20k - 10k = 110k. NRR: 110 per cent.

NRR above 100 per cent means your business is growing from existing customers without adding new customers. This is the hallmark of a strong SaaS business.

NRR of 110-120 per cent is excellent. 100-110 per cent is good. Below 100 per cent means you are losing more from churn than you are gaining from expansion.

How to Showcase Series A Traction

Headline: "75k MRR. 45 customers. 125 per cent NRR."

Body:

MRR growth chart (past 12 months)
Customer logos (top 5-7 customers)
Key metrics: CAC, LTV, payback period, NRR
Optional: pipeline (qualified leads in sales process)

Keep the traction slide to three key metrics maximum. More than three metrics and the investor does not know what to care about.

Red Flags at Series A

Investors will be suspicious if:

MRR is flat or declining. (This is a deal-breaker.)
You have no customer logos to show. (Either you are hiding something, or you have no real customers.)
CAC payback is over 18 months. (Your unit economics do not work.)
You have not calculated NRR. (You do not understand your business model.)
Your "customers" are mostly free trials or non-paying users. (This is vanity traction.)

What to Show at Series B and Beyond

At Series B, you are no longer proving the business model works. You are proving you can grow efficiently at scale and that you are the market leader.

ARR and ARR Growth Rate

Move from MRR to ARR. Show year-over-year growth rate.

Example: "45 million pounds ARR, growing 85 per cent year-over-year."

At Series B, growth rates of 60+ per cent year-over-year are expected. Below 50 per cent and investors question whether you are still in growth mode or transitioning to mature growth.

Gross Margin

Show the percentage of revenue left after cost of goods sold. This should be improving or staying stable as you scale.

Example: "45 million pounds ARR with 74 per cent gross margin. Margins expand 1 per cent per year as we scale infrastructure."

NRR and Expansion Revenue

NRR becomes more important at Series B. Show that existing customers are expanding.

Example: "125 per cent NRR. Expansion revenue is 15 million pounds of our 45 million pounds ARR."

Churn Rate

Show your monthly or annual churn rate. This should be low and declining.

Example: "Monthly churn of 0.8 per cent. Annual churn: 9 per cent."

Benchmark: For B2B SaaS, monthly churn below 2 per cent is healthy. Below 1 per cent is excellent.

CAC and CAC Efficiency

Show CAC as a percentage of gross profit. This should be under 100 per cent (meaning you recover your CAC within a year).

Example: "CAC of 40,000 pounds. Gross profit per customer in year one: 55,000 pounds. CAC ratio: 73 per cent."

Market Share

If you are a leader in your market, show it.

Example: "35 per cent market share in UK cloud security. Second player has 12 per cent."

How to Showcase Series B Traction

Headline: "45 million pounds ARR. 125 per cent NRR. 35 per cent market share."

Body:

ARR growth chart (past 8 quarters showing acceleration or consistent growth)
Key customer logos (top 10 customers)
Efficiency metrics: CAC, LTV, CAC payback, CAC ratio
Expansion metrics: NRR, churn rate
Margin and profitability trajectory
Market position (if applicable)

The MRR Chart: Your Most Valuable Traction Signal

If you have MRR, always include an MRR growth chart. This single chart is more convincing than a dozen other metrics.

A strong MRR chart shows:

Consistent month-over-month growth (not flat, not declining)
Acceleration (growth rate increasing)
Meaningful scale (by month 12, you should have at least 50k MRR)

A weak MRR chart shows:

Flat growth (same MRR month-to-month)
Declining growth (growth rate slowing)
Single customer dependency (if losing one customer drops MRR 30 per cent, that is a red flag)

What to Do When Traction Is Early or Thin

What if you have only one customer? Or you just launched and have no customers yet?

Acknowledge It

Do not fabricate traction. Do not show vanity metrics and hope investors do not notice.

Instead, tell the story of traction that is coming.

Show Leading Indicators

Leading indicators are things that predict future traction:

Beta waitlist momentum: "500 signups in the first month after launch. Growing 20 per cent week-over-week."
Pilot pipeline: "10 conversations with qualified prospects. 3 pilot agreements signed."
Customer feedback: "Net Promoter Score of 72 from beta customers."
Product adoption: "Beta customers are logging in daily. Average user does X action Y times per week."

Show the Path to Traction

Explain what needs to happen for traction to accelerate.

Example: "We just launched our product three weeks ago. We have three pilot customers using the product. Next milestone is to onboard 10 customers and reach 5k MRR by end of Q2. We are tracking towards this milestone: we have seven qualified leads in advanced conversation."

This is honest. It shows you understand what traction you need and that you have a plan to get it.

Show the Problem Is Real

Even if you have no revenue, show that customers care about the problem you are solving.

Example: "We have not launched yet, but we have spoken to 30 potential customers. All 30 described access provisioning as a significant pain. Twenty-two of them expressed interest in a pilot. Eight have signed letters of intent."

This proves the problem is real without claiming revenue you do not have.

What Not to Include

Vanity Metrics

Do not show:

Total signups (if 80 per cent are not paying or engaged)
Pageviews or website traffic
Social media followers
Press impressions
Downloads (if you do not know if they are using the product)

These metrics make you look like you do not understand your business.

Metric Gymnastics

Do not show metrics that obscure the truth:

ARR when you should show MRR (if MRR is 5k, annualizing to 60k ARR makes you look bigger than you are)
Gross revenue when you should show net revenue (subtract customer refunds, discounts, and churn)
"Active users" when you mean "ever signed up"
Contracts signed when you mean deals paying

Investors will ask questions about any metric you show. Be prepared to defend the number.

The Traction Slide Must Earn Its Place

The Traction slide is only valuable if it moves the investor forward. If your traction is weak, a weak traction slide is better than a missing one (it shows you know what you do not have). But the best approach is to not include a traction slide until you have traction worth showing.

Instead, move earlier in your deck and focus on Problem, Solution, and Why Now. If those are compelling, investors will ask about traction in the meeting.

Traction is important, but it is not make-or-break at seed stage. At Series A and beyond, traction becomes essential. By then, you should have metrics worth showing.