# Commercial analysis: examine traction and customer evidence

> Learn to examine startup traction, metric definitions, cohorts and customer evidence without confusing usage, commitments and revenue.

Canonical HTML: [https://orbitrum.io/academy/commercial-analysis/](https://orbitrum.io/academy/commercial-analysis/)

Commercial evidence describes a particular customer relationship or business measure. This track helps you distinguish the measures, periods and assumptions that can disappear behind a single headline about traction.

## Start here

[How to examine a startup's traction evidence](/academy/commercial-analysis/startup-traction-evidence/)

The guide separates registrations, active usage, pilots, signed commitments, reported revenue and cash received. A fictional cohort example shows how customer retention and recurring-amount retention answer different questions.

## What you will practice

Define a metric in plain language. Preserve its calculation and denominator. Follow a starting cohort without mixing in newly acquired customers. Identify a methodology change and explain what a public-source review cannot verify.

No universal customer count or growth threshold is presented as proof of product-market fit.

## Choose your perspective

**For experts:** connect a commercial conclusion to the definition, period and evidence that support it.

**For readers:** distinguish the business relationship described by a metric from the stronger relationship you might be tempted to infer.

## Continue the learning path

Use [general method](/academy/general-method/) to connect commercial evidence to a broader research question. The [NVIDIA filing case](/academy/applied-cases/nvidia-filing-analysis/) provides a dated public-company exercise in reading reported financial figures, while preserving the difference from private-startup disclosures.

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