ReadWriteStart

You could have the greatest idea for a startup in the world. You could even have the best team working together to build a great product. That's all fine and dandy, but for first-time entrepreneurs, if you don't have traction, you're not going anywhere. Traction means having a measurable set of customers or users that serves to prove to a potential investor that your startup is "going places." The tricky part is actually gaining that traction and knowing when you have enough to approach potential investors, so here are a few tips that should help.

Unfortunately, you can't always explain why a venture capitalist chooses to invest in one startup and not in another. Despite what some will claim, there is no magic formula that entrepreneurs can follow to assure them funding 100% of the time; these are just guidelines to follow to increase your chances, but in the end, a VC's decision is not always about the quality of the company, idea or founders. It's like in a relationship when one party breaks it off by saying, "It's not you, it's me," only for VCs they actually mean it most of the time.