Bruce Cleveland
Author | Founder and CEO of Traction Gap Partners
Bruce Cleveland is the founder and CEO of Traction Gap Partners and a former technology operating executive, venture capitalist, and entrepreneur. He has held senior executive positions at Oracle, Apple, Siebel Systems and C3.ai. He has been a General Partner in two venture capital firms, and he was the founder and CEO of Ziplines Education.
His venture capital successes include companies such as Marketo, C3.ai, Vlocity, and Doximity. Many of his investments were just ideas at the time he invested – no product or revenue- and went on to become $B+ outcomes.
Cleveland is also the author of the bestseller “Traversing the Traction Gap” and “Market Engineering: Because Markets Don’t Build Themselves, prescriptive guides for startups and enterprise product teams in mature companies navigating growth challenges.
Today, Cleveland acts as a board and executive advisor to startups, enterprises, and venture firms using the Traction Gap Framework to generate “market engineering” strategies and market success.
Market Engineering: Building Markets That Win with Bruce Cleveland
When Bruce first joined us in May 2025, we explored how companies move from promising ideas to repeatable, scalable growth. This time, he returns to discuss his new book, Market Engineering: Because Markets Don’t Build Themselves, and why building a strong product is no longer enough to create lasting market leadership.
Drawing on decades of experience at Oracle, Apple, Siebel Systems, and C3.ai—as well as investments in com...
Building Companies from Ideation to Scale with Bruce Cleveland
Join us for an episode of The Bliss Business Podcast featuring Bruce Cleveland—founder & CEO of Traction Gap Partners, bestselling author of Traversing the Traction Gap, and the investor behind billion-dollar outcomes like Marketo, C3 AI., Vlocity, a Salesforce Company, and Doximity.
🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach, Michael Liwski & Tullio Siragusa
In this conversation, we explore:
✅ Why most companies fail in the go-to-market gap—...