BC

Bruce Cleveland

Author of the best seller “Traversing the Traction Gap", CEO - Traction Gap Partners, former enterprise software executive and venture capitalist

United States

Overview 

Bruce Cleveland is the CEO of Traction Gap Partners and the author of the best-selling book "Traversing the Traction Gap." He has a successful background as a venture capitalist and enterprise software executive, with notable roles at C3 AI as Chief Marketing Officer and as a Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners. Cleveland's career highlights include being a General Partner at InterWest Partners and authoring a best-selling book, showcasing his expertise in strategic marketing management, corporate venture capital, and entrepreneurship development.

Work Experience 

  • Chief Executive Officer

    2023 - Current

  • Advisor

    2024

  • Advisor

    2024

  • Advisor

    2024

  • Advisor

    2022

  • Chief Marketing Officer

    2019 - 2021

    I was one of the first investors in C3 AI- at its start up in 2009 - and from 2019 through 2021, I was its CMO helping to create a new category (Enterprise AI) and to take the company through a successful IPO (NYSE: AI). Today, C3 AI is the global market leader in Enterprise AI.

  • Founding Partner

    2016 - 2019

    Wildcat Venture Partners is an early-stage VC firm in Silicon Valley. During my tenure at Wildcat, I made several early stage investments in software startups such as C3 AI (NYSE: AI) and Vlocity (acquired by Salesforce). I personally created a startup - GreenFig (rebranded as Ziplines Education) - that partners with universities to train people how to apply industry- leading business applications. Finally, I wrote Traversing the Traction Gap - a prescriptive guide for entrepreneurs to successfully take their startup from from ideation to scale.

Wildcat invests in early-stage B2B and B2B2C tech startups in digital health, EdTech, enterprise SaaS, and FinTech markets.

  • General Partner

    2006 - 2015

    During my 9 years as a member of the InterWest team, I invested in multiple very early stage software startups -- many were just ideas without a product, customers or revenue: C3 AI (NYSE: AI), Doximity (NYSE: DOCS), Marketo (acquired by Adobe), and Engagio (acquired by Demandbase).

InterWest invests an average of about $7 - 15 million over the span of their involvement with each company in their portfolio.

Articles About Bruce

Relevant Websites