PITCH PROBLEMS: `I’m always asked, what if Google did this?'

Asking for money is never easy. In this column, entrepreneurs tell TOI Startups how VCs stumped them with hard questions during a pitch

Launched five years ago, Kraftly helps sellers get online and improve their visibility with specific tools. The company has gone through three rounds of fund-raise and raised around $10 million, so its founder Saahil Goel has had plenty of conversations with venture capitalists.As much as he’d like to avoid it, there is one question that Goel faces every time he talks to an investor and he’s yet to find the answer to it.
“After hearing our pitch, the investor almost always asks, ‘What if Google/Amazon/Microsoft were to do the work you are doing?’ Whether it’s a small angel investor or a big VC, the question remains the same. Technically yes, those big players could get into it. But they are not. Often, I want to ask them what they would do if another investor put money into the same company they invest in? But my response usually revolves around making them realise the value of what we are building and how it would be hard for a big guy to get into our space. We know how the local market works and that’s our advantage. So if the VCs are still not convinced, we just tell them we are not interested in their money.”