Aravind Srinivas on June 16, 2025 at AI Startup School in San Francisco. Aravind Srinivas started Perplexity with one goal: to rethink how we search, browse, and interact with information online. In this conversation, he shares the journey from hacking together a natural-language-to-SQL search tool to building a product used by millions around the world. He talks about the big bet on the AI-powered browser, why agents—not just chatbots—are the next step, and how speed, accuracy, and focus help a startup compete against giants. Along the way, he reflects on co-founder dynamics, early technical challenges, and what it takes to keep building when the biggest players in the world are racing alongside you. Apply to Y Combinator: https://ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://workatastartup.com Chapters: 00:48 - Perplexity's Current Status and Challenges 01:16 - The Browser Bet 03:18 - Competition and Market Dynamics 04:43 - The Importance of Speed and Innovation 05:51 - Founding Perplexity: The Early Days 09:18 - Product Evolution and User Experience 19:44 - Running the Company and Future Outlook 20:15 - AI Tools in Software Engineering 20:31 - Adoption and Implementation of AI Coding Tools 21:11 - Challenges and Benefits of AI in Development 22:35 - Brand Value and Competition 23:56 - Network Effects and Integrations 27:40 - Business Model and Revenue Streams 29:54 - Advice for Founders 31:33 - Audience Q&A
YC General Partner David Lieb sits down with Aravind Srinivas, the co-founder and CEO of Perplexity, to discuss his origins in Silicon Valley, what it's like to compete with Google, and what the future of search could look like. Apply to Y Combinator: https://ycombinator.com/apply Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 0:00 Intro 0:51 Aravind’s early days in AI 3:45 What made Aravind start a company 6:35 The first iterations 14:10 Realizing Perplexity had potential 19:02 “The user is never wrong.” 22:20 Managing the team 24:53 Brutal honesty brings out the worst bugs 25:33 Avoiding becoming a big slow company 27:37 The future of search 31:11 Perplexity’s advantage against its competitors 34:26 Outro
Perplexity co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas believes their real advantage in the competition for the future of search with Google lies in user obsession and product taste. Even powerful distribution and domain expertise can't outweigh fundamental business dilemmas—like Google's reliance on high-margin search ads, which limit their flexibility to innovate.
In this View From The Top interview, Aislin Roth, MBA ‘25, speaks with Aravind Srinivas, CEO & Co-Founder of Perplexity. Aravind shares his journey from growing up in India, moving to the U.S. to pursue his PhD in computer science, and founding Perplexity, an AI-powered “answer-engine” that recently tripled its valuation. Aravind shares his own leadership lessons, offers advice to prospective founders, and dives into what makes Perplexity unique. A must-listen for anyone interested in entrepreneurial leadership, the future of AI, and reimagining search as we know it.