Our Company

We help large enterprises find and manage emerging technology startups and vendors that fit their mission-critical needs.

45

Industries Served

10,000+

Projects Completed

50,000

Enterprise-Ready Startups

Who we are

The "Why" behind Traction Technology

We've been finding and working with the world's best startups and forward-thinking enterprises for 25 years.

Our founders are technology insiders with years of experience building and running DEMO and TechCrunch, and growing Business 2.0, Fortune, and Fast Company.

We have an unparalleled track record of analyzing technology trends and picking technology winners. Coupled with our deep global network of the world’s top startup founders, venture capitalists and engineers, we can bring to bear the right startups and technologies to solve our clients’ hardest problems.

Our team works closely with Fortune 500 companies to connect them with emerging technologies and industry experts to help transform their companies and fuel their growth. We develop our product roadmap alongside our enterprise customers, fine tuning our software and services to suit the specific needs of IT leaders and business development professionals charged with driving innovation across large decentralized organizations.

Meet the team

Erick Schonfeld

President & Co-Founder

Erick has been discovering and working with startups his entire professional career as a founder,  startup event producer, and journalist. He is the former Executive Producer of the DEMO conferences and former Editor-in-Chief of TechCrunch, where he helped conceive, lead and select startups for the Disrupt conferences, and oversaw editorial coverage. Prior to TechCrunch,  Erick was Editor-at-Large for Business 2.0 magazine, and a senior technology writer at Fortune magazine.

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Neal Silverman

CEO and Co-Founder

As Senior Vice President and General Manager of DEMO–the world-renowned launching pad for emerging technology–for over 15 years, Neal oversaw the expansion of its CIO Network and portfolio of professional services. Neal has built his career at the intersection of the Fortune 500 and emerging technologies holding senior executive positions at IDG, Fast Company Magazine, US News & World Report, the Wall Street Journal, and CMGI.

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Sean Walter

Founding CTO

Over the last 20 years specializing in consumer design, development, and user experience at eight technology startups – including Actifio, Cybric, CloudHealth, and Verdasys – Sean has a track record of helping startups raise over $300 million in venture funding, as well as building products who's value surpasses $5 billion.

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Varun Mehta

VP, Technology

Varun leads Traction's engineering team, overseeing all application development, APIs and cloud infrastructure. Varun is a seasoned software engineer, who previously worked for IBM Watson, Nike and Fortune magazine.

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What we do

TRACTION SOFTWARE

Technology Evaluation Platform

Accelerate your company's innovation efforts with Traction — a collaborative platform for evaluating, adopting and managing new technologies.

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TRACTION SERVICES

Research + Technology Scouting

Traction gives you access to a team of analysts and researchers who are dedicated to scouting technologies for your company.

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Make your digital innovation program thrive with Traction Technology

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Speed up technology adoption
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Improve visibility across teams
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Access a database of enterprise-ready startups