How to Make the Traction Slide [Of Your Pitch Deck]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Jun 11, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 31
Last week, Patrick, one of our clients, asked a question while we were helping him build his pitch deck,
“What actually counts as traction?”
Our Creative Director replied instantly:
“Anything that proves people care.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on pitch deck traction slides all year round. And if there’s one challenge we keep seeing, it’s this: most founders try to show progress, but end up showing activity. Not the same thing.
So, in this blog, we’ll break down how to make a traction slide that actually speaks investor language, not startup noise.
In case you didn't know, we specialize in only one thing: making presentations. We can help you by designing your slides and writing your content too.
Why the Traction Slide Matters in a Pitch Deck
Let’s get one thing out of the way: investors don’t invest in potential. They invest in proof. You could have the best product idea since sliced bread, but if no one’s biting, no one’s buying.
That’s where the traction slide steps in. It’s the investor’s shortcut to answering one burning question: Is this thing actually working in the real world?
Your traction slide isn’t about painting a pretty picture. It’s about showing momentum. Progress. Demand. It’s the part of your pitch deck that screams, “Look, we’re not just building—we’re moving.”
And here’s the kicker: traction doesn’t have to be millions in revenue or a waitlist longer than a CVS receipt. It can be anything that proves real people are interacting with what you’ve built. That they’re returning, telling friends, converting, renewing, pre-ordering, reviewing. It’s proof that the wheels are turning—and picking up speed.
Without a solid traction slide, your pitch deck becomes theoretical. And theoretical doesn’t get funded. Not in today’s climate.
You might think the product is the hero of your pitch. It’s not. The traction is.
When you show traction, you’re showing product-market fit in motion. You’re showing that the market is saying “yes” with actions, not just words. And that’s the only validation investors care about.
How to Make the Pitch Deck Traction Slide
Let’s be honest with each other. Most traction slides suck.
They either drown in vanity metrics, list five logos of companies that “showed interest,” or use vague statements like “Early traction looks promising.” That’s not traction. That’s hopeful guessing disguised as progress.
A good traction slide answers two questions clearly:
What real-world proof do you have that people want what you’re building?
How fast is that proof growing?
When we build pitch decks for our clients, we treat the traction slide like evidence in court. This is your proof of life. And just like in court, hearsay doesn’t count.
So, let’s break it down.
Step 1: Define What Counts as Traction (And What Doesn’t)
Before you even touch a slide, get clear on what qualifies as traction in your business.
Let’s say you're pre-revenue. That’s fine. But you still need proof of engagement. Traction can be:
Active users (DAUs, MAUs)
Conversion rates over time
Email list growth
Signups or pre-orders
Waitlist length
Revenue (of course)
Repeat purchase rate
Retention data
Churn reduction
App downloads
Sales velocity (number of deals closed per month)
Partnerships that lead to distribution or revenue
What doesn’t count?
Press coverage (nice to have, but not traction)
Product mockups
A vague “growing community” with no metrics
Testimonials without actual engagement
Investor interest (ironic, we know)
Traction is something measurable. Something you can track, plot, and prove.
Patrick, our client, initially wanted to include the fact that he’d talked to over 50 potential customers. Great. But how many of those turned into signups? Did any of them buy? Did they refer someone?
That’s the real signal. Not the conversation, but the conversion.
Step 2: Pick the Right Metric(s) to Display
You don’t need 10 metrics. You need one or two that hit hard.
What’s the number you want investors to remember?
For example:
If you’ve tripled your revenue in the last 6 months, show the monthly revenue growth.
If you’re still pre-revenue but have 10,000 people on your waitlist, show waitlist growth month-by-month.
If your users come back daily, show retention rates or active usage curves.
The mistake most people make is trying to show too much. But a traction slide isn’t a data dump. It’s a highlight reel. It’s your one chart that changes the room.
So pick one hero metric. Two max. And show it in a way that hits immediately.
We worked with a healthtech founder who had 50 early adopters in a closed beta. Sounds small, right? But here’s what we found out: 92% of them used the product every day, and 87% said they would be “very disappointed” if it disappeared. That’s gold. That’s traction. We visualized this with a single clean chart + two stat callouts. That’s all it took.
Step 3: Make It Visual, Not Text-Heavy
Words don’t stick. Charts do.
If your traction slide looks like a bullet-point grocery list, you’ve already lost your audience. A good traction slide is a clean visual with one simple insight.
You don’t need to be a designer. But you do need to respect your audience’s brain. They’re processing your pitch in real-time. Make it easy for them.
What works:
Line graph showing growth over time (e.g. revenue, signups, usage)
Bar chart comparing this month to last
Percentage change with a short context line (“+300% user growth in 90 days”)
Before/after snapshot (“From 3 clients in Jan to 21 clients in June”)
What doesn’t:
Pie charts with 8 colors
Tables filled with tiny numbers
Paragraphs of explanations
Screenshots without context
We’re visual creatures. If you can’t explain your traction in one visual and one sentence, it’s probably not ready to be shown yet.
Step 4: Give Context Without Excuses
Let’s say your revenue is small. Like, really small. $4,200/month small.
You might be tempted to hide it. But if you have high margins, zero churn, and 30% MoM growth, that’s your story. Own it.
Your job isn’t to look “big enough.” It’s to show the right momentum.
So give honest context. Not excuses. Something like:
“Launched in March, reached $4.2K MRR with 100% organic growth”
“Zero churn across first 27 paying users”
“Acquisition cost: $0, purely from founder-led outreach”
These kinds of statements make small numbers work for you, not against you.
When we worked with a SaaS founder who had only 15 paid users, he was worried about looking too early. But once we mapped out user retention and customer acquisition cost, the story shifted. He was retaining 100% of users after 3 months and spending just $11 to acquire each. That’s the kind of math investors respect.
Step 5: Highlight Trends, Not Just Totals
Total revenue is nice. But growth is better.
Investors don’t back what’s working. They back what’s accelerating.
So rather than dumping your current numbers in a bullet, show how they’re moving. Frame your traction as a timeline.
Use phrases like:
“Grew from X to Y in Z months”
“Doubled conversion rate since launch”
“40% MoM growth across 3 consecutive quarters”
Your graph should look like it’s climbing. If it’s flat, you’re not ready to raise.
And if your growth is lumpy? That’s fine too. You just need to explain the story behind the spikes.
Maybe a product update triggered a boost. Maybe a new channel unlocked demand. This kind of insight shows you’re learning, iterating, and getting better over time.
Step 6: Tie Your Traction to Your Strategy
This is the part most people miss.
Your traction isn’t just about numbers. It’s about alignment.
If you say you’re targeting mid-sized enterprises, but your traction is 20 individuals paying $9/month, there’s a mismatch. Investors will catch it instantly.
Your traction needs to support your story.
Let’s say you claim to have a scalable B2B solution. Then show pilot programs, customer contracts, or enterprise leads in the pipeline. If you say retention is key to your model, then highlight your churn and reactivation rates.
Make your traction slide feel like the proof-of-concept for your business model. That’s when it hits hardest.
Step 7: Avoid the “Too Soon” Trap
Some founders hold off on adding a traction slide because they think it’s “too early.” But here’s a secret:
There’s always something you can show.
Even if you launched last week, you probably have:
Early user signups
User feedback or survey data
Website traffic spikes
Email responses
Beta waitlist metrics
Landing page conversion rates
Traction isn’t about being big. It’s about being real.
If you’ve shipped something into the world and people are reacting, that’s traction. So don’t wait for perfection. Share what you’ve got, and frame it honestly.
Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?
If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.