What do you consider to be a greater inspiration kickstarting your journey into the startup phase? For Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, it was the rise of Indian-origin CEO like Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella that encouraged him to pursue his ambition of establishing a venture like Perplexity and make it relevant in the cut-throat competition of AI-infused startups.
In a candid interview with ET, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas articulated a deeply personal and generational challenge to the mindset within India’s tech ecosystem: moving beyond the aspiration of management toward global-scale creation.
Indians can be better founders, not just managers
Srinivas talked about the cultural expectation he experienced growing up, where success was defined by securing a prestigious job at a firm like Google. While expressing pride in figures like Sundar Pichai, Srinivas reiterated that their success reinforces the notion that Indian talent is best utilised running “other people’s companies.”
“My mother would say, ‘Get a job at Google.’ That was the big aspiration,” Srinivas stated. “Sundar Pichai becoming CEO was a proud moment for India, but it also reinforced the idea that Indians should run other people’s companies.”
“My hope is that the next generation sees it is possible to build the next Google, not just work there. I am not saying I alone will do it, but if more founders try to build at global scale, it will shift the mindset,” added Srinivas.
“I am from India, and I want to show we can build companies, not just manage them. The best way to inspire is to go do it,” said Srinivas as he expressed his desire to see more Indians building big companies instead of just managing the world’s top firms.
Satya Nadella is a mentor, says Srinivas
Srinivas also shed light on his close, yet competitive, relationship with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. He described Nadella as a phenomenal CEO and coach and a key mentor, with whom he speaks roughly once a month. This mentorship continues despite the market overlap between Microsoft’s Copilot and Perplexity, both of which are competing in the rapidly expanding market of AI.
Srinivas praised Nadella’s big-picture thinking, noting, “If Perplexity succeeds and we can do business together, that is fine.”
“I think Satya could have been a great founder too. He is more of a refounder at Microsoft, which is incredibly hard,” he added.
Perplexity recently undertook a wider release of the Comet web browser that puts the emphasis on Agentic AI. Compared to the competing web browser from Google and Microsoft, Comet offers superior integration with generative AI models, promising a better experience for users for improving the workflow.