In her latest column for Startups.co.uk, Pioneering People founder and CEO Rita Kastrati explains how founders building businesses around people can still cut through the noise around AI.
Walk into almost any VC meeting right now, and there’s a question waiting for you: “So, what’s your AI angle?” AI is soaking up an enormous share of the UK’s venture capital, and if your business is about people (like mine is), it can sometimes feel a little bit like you’re pitching in the wrong language.
At Pioneering People, we connect real workers with real shifts, and make sure they’re paid fairly and on the same day. I’ve had to learn to tell that story in a market obsessed with automation – without pretending to be something we’re not.
If you’re building something people-first, here’s my take on how to pitch it:
- Show where tech makes the humans better: investors can smell a last-minute “AI-powered” slide from across the room. Instead, be precise about where technology does the heavy lifting – and for us, it’s verification, matching and same-day payments. A clear line between the two reads as maturity, not a weakness.
- Make your human side can be your USP: values alone don’t make a VC’s model work; defensibility does. Frame your human side as the thing that’s hard to copy: trust, retention, a supply network that took years to build, relationships no model can replicate. If people are coming back to your business because of the people and the work that they do, show the retention data that proves it.
- Pitch to the right room: While some of the stats look a little scary on this front, not every fund is chasing pure AI (I promise!). Look for investors with future-of-work, marketplace or impact theses, and for operators and angels who’ve lived the problem. Ten meetings with aligned investors beat fifty with funds that are interested in AI-related tech infrastructure you don’t have, and ultimately, isn’t central to your business model.
AI will, of course, keep reshaping where the money goes. But the businesses it can’t replace are the ones built on human foundations and needs – and that can actually be a pretty compelling place to be, especially if you’re really looking to stand out.
You really don’t need to be apologetic for being human-focused. Instead, focus your energy on making investors see that it’s exactly why you’ll win.
Rita Kastrati – Founder of Pioneering People
Rita Kastrati grew up in and around the hospitality industry, where she watched restaurants and bars struggle with employee shortages. Then, at university, she worked shifts for agencies, and saw a broken system that sold staff short. Now, Rita's reshaping the gig economy on her own terms as the trailblazing Founder and CEO of Pioneering People, a platform that connects businesses with verified workers instantly, while ensuring workers are paid fairly and on the same day.
This content is contributed by a guest author. Startups.co.uk / MVF does not endorse or take responsibility for any views, advice, analysis or claims made within this post.
