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Traction Foundry Support

Find leads, draft outreach with AI, and track replies — all in one place. To get started you’ll need a free Gemini API key (powers the AI). Setup instructions for every supported key live on the API Keys card in Settings — each key has a built-in How to get this walkthrough. Then skim the steps below, or email support@productra.com.

How it Works

Every campaign has two tabs — Leads and Discussions. They’re independent. Use one, the other, or both. Most people start with one to learn the loop.

Setup once (5 minutes)

  • Add a Gemini API key — free, ~1 minute, powers all AI in the app. Open the API Keys card in Settings — every supported provider has a step-by-step (click the ? next to a key).
  • Connect Gmail or SMTP on the Senders tab in Settings. Required for the Leads track to send emails. Optional if you only plan to use Discussions (which is manual copy-paste).
  • Set your physical address per campaign (Compliance card at the bottom of the campaign details page). Required by CAN-SPAM — appears in every outbound email footer.

Leads tab

Automated outbound email to people you’ve never contacted.

  1. Define who you’re targetingAdd Search Terms describing the people you want to reach (e.g. indie SaaS founders, Etsy sellers).
  2. Discover candidatesClick Run Discovery. Traction Foundry scans Reddit, HackerNews, Indie Hackers, Product Hunt, YouTube, blogs, and podcasts. Approve matches under Potential Targets.
  3. Generate draftsOn the Message Drafts tab, AI writes a personalized email per approved target, using your product description and tone. Edit any draft inline.
  4. Approve for queueClick Approve for queue on each draft. The executor sends them daily, respecting your daily cap and Do-Not-Contact list. Or hit Send email for an immediate one-off.
  5. Replies arrive automaticallyRecipients reply to your Gmail. Traction Foundry pulls them in, classifies each (interested, question, unsubscribe, OOO, not interested), and shows them on the Lead Tracking tab. Unsubscribes auto-add to DNC.

Discussions tab

Manual social engagement on Reddit / HN / IH / Product Hunt.

  1. Set search keywordsUnder Search Keywords, list topics your audience talks about (e.g. cold email tools, SaaS launch).
  2. Find live threadsClick Find Threads. Hourly scans surface matching posts. AI ranks each by intent — HIGH INTENT (someone’s ready to buy or ask), MEDIUM, or DISCUSSION.
  3. Approve threads worth engagingBrowse Relevant Threads, approve the ones you want to reply to. AI drafts a reply suited to that platform’s tone.
  4. Copy-paste yourselfOn Message Drafts, click Copy & Open Thread. Paste into the actual reply box and post manually. Authentic engagement, not bot spam.
  5. Open thread to check engagementOn Thread Tracking, the Open Thread button takes you back to the live conversation so you can monitor replies and follow up.

Tracking & ROI

When a lead becomes a customer or books a demo, hit Mark Converted on the Lead Tracking row. Optional dollar value tracks real revenue. The Outreach Metrics card on each campaign shows Sent, Replied, Interested, and Converted with rates. The Overview page rolls everything up across campaigns.

FAQs

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Is Traction Foundry free?
The current build is free to use while we’re in early access — bring your own Gemini API key and Gmail account. Paid tiers with bundled AI usage and higher caps are coming soon.
What does Traction Foundry actually do?
Two tracks per campaign. Leads automates outbound email — discover people, AI drafts personalized emails, executor sends them through your Gmail/SMTP, replies get classified. Discussions finds live threads on Reddit / HN / IH / Product Hunt where your audience is talking, AI drafts a reply, you copy-paste into the thread yourself (so it doesn’t look automated).
What API keys do I need?
Required: a Gemini API key (free tier is generous — get one at aistudio.google.com/apikey). Optional: Groq for AI fallback, YouTube + SerpAPI + PodcastIndex + Product Hunt for additional discovery sources. All managed on the API Keys card in Settings, with a step-by-step How to get this walkthrough on each row.
How do I pause everything?
Open Settings, find the Automation card, and flip Pause all automations off. The card header shows LIVE / PAUSED. While paused, no crons run for any campaign. To pause a single campaign instead, use the Pause button on its detail page.
Can I send from multiple email aliases?
Yes. Set up “Send mail as” aliases in your Gmail account once (e.g. hi@yourbrand.com on you@gmail.com), then per campaign open the Sender & Limits card and set the alias address. Each campaign can use a different alias from the same connected Gmail account — useful if you’re running multiple businesses.
How do I request a feature?
Email support@productra.com with the use case. We prioritize based on what real users are asking for.
Why didn’t my email send?
Most common reasons: (1) the daily email cap is reached (resets at 00:00 UTC); (2) the recipient is on your Do-Not-Contact list; (3) no sender account is connected (open the Senders tab in Settings); (4) Gmail OAuth was revoked — you’ll see a Reconnect link in the error message. The draft’s Last send failed alert tells you which one.
I hit the daily email cap. How do I raise it?
Open the campaign, find the Sender & Limits card, click Edit, and bump Daily email cap. Hard max is 2,000/day. Note: that’s our cap, not your provider’s — Gmail free accounts cap at ~500/day, Workspace at ~2,000. Setting higher than your provider allows won’t increase your real limit; sends past it will fail with a quota error. The cap resets daily at 00:00 UTC.
Send is blocked: “No sender connected”
Two layers — campaign-level + account-level. Either pin a sender to this campaign on the Sender & Limits card, or connect one on the Senders tab in Settings so it’s available as a default. SMTP works for cPanel and similar; Gmail is recommended for reply tracking.
Will my emails land in spam?
First sends from a new sender often land in spam, especially Outlook/Hotmail. To improve deliverability: warm up the Gmail account with normal personal emails for a week or two before campaigns, keep your daily cap modest (under 50 to start), and avoid links in cold emails. Marking your test sends “Not junk” in the recipient’s inbox trains their filter.
I’m seeing AI errors or “Gemini quota reached”
Gemini’s free tier has a daily limit (~1,500 requests). Two fixes: (1) add a Groq API key on the API Keys card in Settings as a free fallback — Traction Foundry tries Gemini first, falls back to Groq automatically; (2) upgrade your Gemini key on Google AI Studio for higher limits. Limits reset daily.
My API key isn’t working / “API key invalid”
Open the API Keys card in Settings, click the trash icon to clear the bad key, then hit Add key with a fresh one. Common gotchas: (1) extra whitespace from copy-paste; (2) the key isn’t activated for the right API (e.g. YouTube Data API v3 must be enabled on the key’s Google Cloud project); (3) you saved the wrong type of credential (OAuth vs API key — we want API key).
Drafts sound too AI / not like my voice
Add Voice samples in the campaign’s Brand Voice section — paste a few paragraphs of your actual writing (a blog post, Twitter threads, past emails). AI uses these to mimic your style. Also check the Tone setting matches your brand (Casual / Professional / Witty). And before sending: edit any draft inline, the AI learns nothing from edits but you keep control.
Why aren’t my replies showing up?
Reply tracking only works for Gmail accounts (not SMTP), and the cron runs once a day on the free Vercel plan. To check on demand, open the Background Jobs card in Settings and click Run now next to Check for replies. Replies that don’t include the original Message-ID header (rare, but happens with some clients) won’t match.
“Gmail access revoked” — how do I reconnect?
Open the Senders tab in Settings, click Remove on the affected Gmail row, then connect it again with the Google button. Tokens get revoked when you change your Google password, sign out everywhere, or hit Google’s 6-month inactivity expiry. Reconnecting issues a fresh token immediately.
Background Jobs panel shows “Not run yet” or “Issues”
On the free tier, jobs run once a day at 00:00 UTC — “Not run yet” just means the daily cron hasn’t fired since the job was added. Click Run now to trigger it immediately. Issues means the last run completed but with a non-fatal error (hover the badge to see the message — usually a third-party API hiccup that resolves on its own next run).
Today’s Activity widget shows zero
It’s a rolling 24-hour count. If you haven’t run discovery, sent drafts, or received replies in the last 24h, the widget hides itself entirely. Trigger any of those and refresh the Overview page.
How do I delete my account or my data?
Email support@productra.com from the address you signed in with and we’ll wipe everything within 7 days. You can also archive individual campaigns yourself — that’s reversible.

Still Need Help?

For further inquiries contact support@productra.com

Email support@productra.com