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What if Google does it?

When a startup is trying to get funding, one question an investor might ask is “What if Google does it?” The thought of a big company like Google doing the same thing as a tiny startup may strike fear in the hearts of some. Luckily, What if Google does it? gives startup founders some answers to that inevitable question. Some of my favorites, both snarky and serious.

“What’s a Google?”
“Does what?”
The obvious snarky responses. Don’t expect to get far with these.

“I’ll stop everything, go somewhere that I can cry (checking in on my Dodgeball account when I get there), post about my defeat to my Jaiku followers, push a message to all my Buzz contacts, and start a Wave suicide doc with my cofounders– because Google always does everything perfectly.”
The answer that’ll get the point across. Google may do a lot of things, but they don’t do all of those things perfectly. They don’t even do search perfectly.

“That would be like Google getting into the power utility business.”
Given everything Google is getting into these days, I don’t recommend using this answer.

“The better question is, what if Google doesn’t do it. And if they don’t, why are we?”
This can be taken two ways. There are plenty of things Google isn’t doing and hasn’t even made a move to do yet. If everyone waited for Google, then lots of startups would never exist. Why wait for the big companies to start before starting to solve a problem yourself?

“They already do… problem?”
“You do it better.”
This is exactly what you do. Who cares what the others are up to. You make your product stand out, even if it’s standing apart from Google.

“To do it they would have to hire me, and you’re about to make sure that doesn’t happen. Right?”
Or Google can hire you. Zing.

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