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Time of India
19-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Perplexity CEO says ‘sleeping with that fear' that your competitor will steal your idea is the key to success
Aravind Srinivas , the co-founder and CEO of $14 billion AI search startup Perplexity, believes that fear—particularly the fear of being outpaced by competitors—is not something to run from but something to embrace. In a recent appearance at Y Combinator's AI Startup School, Srinivas shared that the secret to staying ahead in today's fast-moving tech world is to 'sleep with that fear' that someone else will take your idea and execute it better. Rather than allowing that pressure to paralyze him, he channels it into building faster and smarter. For Srinivas, this mindset has helped Perplexity go from an ambitious startup to a serious contender among tech giants like Google, Microsoft and OpenAI. How Perplexity and Aravind Srinivas turn fear into fuel Srinivas urges startup founders to internalize the reality that great ideas will almost always be copied. In his view, the only protection is speed, identity and execution. 'If your company can make hundreds of millions, maybe billions, assume others will copy it,' he warned. But instead of seeing that as a threat, he considers it a daily motivator. The ability to move fast and build something distinct is what separates successful companies from forgotten ones. In a Reddit AMA, Srinivas admitted his dedication borders on obsessiveness. 'I don't do anything other than working, sadly,' he said. His downtime involves listening to podcasts and audiobooks, with occasional breaks to see family or hit the gym. But beneath the long hours lies a firm belief: 'There is no substitute for hard work.' His discipline reflects the broader startup ethos. It is about constant hustle in exchange for impact and growth. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like No annual fees for life UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo Big tech is watching Perplexity's rapid growth Perplexity's rapid rise hasn't gone unnoticed. Reports suggest Apple has shown interest in acquiring the startup, further cementing its status as a serious player in the AI space. Srinivas's fear-driven focus and ability to stay lean and fast has drawn comparisons to early-stage OpenAI and other breakthrough companies. With the AI boom in full swing, tech leaders like Sam Altman and Mark Cuban believe it's only a matter of time before a one-person billion-dollar company emerges, powered entirely by AI. Srinivas is part of that new generation of founders riding the AI wave, showing that bold ideas backed by urgency can reshape entire industries. As Cuban puts it, the first AI trillionaire might already be coding in a basement somewhere. Perplexity's story suggests it's not as far-fetched as it sounds. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Time of India
17-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas warns tech founders: ‘Big Tech will copy anything that's good'
Aravind Srinivas , CEO of AI search startup Perplexity , has advised student entrepreneurs to expect their ideas to be copied by large technology companies. Speaking at Y Combinator's AI Startup School, Srinivas said that if a new product has potential to generate substantial revenue, big tech firms will likely replicate it. 'You've got to live with that fear' While addressing undergraduate, graduate and PhD students, Srinivas explained how major players like Google, Meta and OpenAI are always scanning the market for new ideas that can be scaled. 'If your company is something that can make revenue on the scale of hundreds of millions of dollars or potentially billions of dollars, you should always assume that a model company will copy it,' he said. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Select a Course Category MCA PGDM Healthcare healthcare Technology Product Management Leadership Cybersecurity Artificial Intelligence CXO Finance Degree others Data Science MBA Project Management Management Others Design Thinking Digital Marketing Data Science Public Policy Operations Management Skills you'll gain: Programming Proficiency Data Handling & Analysis Cybersecurity Awareness & Skills Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Duration: 24 Months Vellore Institute of Technology VIT Master of Computer Applications Starts on Aug 14, 2024 Get Details He pointed to his own company's experience. In December 2022, Perplexity launched an answer engine with real-time web crawling. Shortly after, the same feature was rolled out by Google's Gemini, ChatGPT, and Anthropic's Claude. 'They will copy anything that's good. I think you got to live with that fear,' Srinivas said. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Retirees Who Collect Under $3,495/mo SS Could Now Be Entitled To These 'Extra' Benefits Better Finances Learn More Undo Imitation is not the end, Srinivas tells founders Despite the risk of being copied, Srinivas urged founders to keep building and to focus on developing unique products and strong brands. 'Work incredibly hard,' he told the students, and 'don't get discouraged by imitation.' Perplexity's communications lead, Jesse Dwyer, echoed the concern. Speaking to Business Insider, Dwyer said, 'Big Tech companies not only copy your features but they also try to drown your voice.' Live Events Browser wars and market power Perplexity recently launched its Comet browser, shortly before OpenAI announced its own plans to launch an AI-powered browser. Dwyer warned about the risk of monopolistic practices in the browser space. 'Browser wars should be won by users, and if users lose Browser War III, it will be from a familiar playbook: monopolistic behaviour by an 'everything company' forcing its product on the market," he told Business Insider. OpenAI to launch new browser OpenAI is preparing to launch a web browser that could compete with Google Chrome, according to a Reuters report. The browser is expected to integrate ChatGPT-like features directly into the interface. This includes real-time summarisation, smart search, voice commands and contextual memory. With ChatGPT reportedly drawing 500 million users each week, OpenAI's new browser may shift traffic and data away from Google. That could affect Alphabet's ad revenue, which depends heavily on Chrome and its default search settings. Perplexity Pro Airtel offer Meanwhile, Airtel has partnered with Perplexity to provide its advanced subscription service, Perplexity Pro, free for one year to all its users. This includes those on Airtel's mobile, broadband, and DTH services. The offer, which is typically valued at ₹17,000 annually, is now available through the Airtel Thanks app at no extra cost. AI search assistant finds mass appeal beyond students Unlike Google's Gemini Pro offer targeted at students, Airtel's collaboration with Perplexity covers a wider demographic — from school and college students to researchers and working professionals. Perplexity Pro offers real-time, structured answers by tapping into models like GPT-4.1 and Claude, effectively replacing traditional search results with contextual, citation-based insights. Users can upload documents, ask follow-up questions, and summarise complex data within a single interface. Professionals, students tap into AI-powered productivity For students managing research deadlines or preparing for exams, Perplexity Pro acts like a digital assistant, simplifying dense academic material and generating organised responses from trusted sources. Professionals in fields such as consulting, design, and law can use the tool to extract insights from reports, draft content, or generate visuals. The Pro version also includes tools like Perplexity Labs for image generation and coding support, making it useful across a range of tasks.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CEO of $14 billion AI firm Perplexity says the secret to success is ‘sleeping with that fear' that your competitor will steal your idea
Building a billion-dollar company is hard enough—but keeping others from stealing your big idea and doing it better might be even harder, says Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. As Sam Altman and Mark Cuban predict AI will create a wave of new billionaire (and even trillionaire) founders, Srinivas says that looming threat should serve as motivation, not fear. Being a startup founder today means operating with a constant sense of urgency. The clock is always ticking—investors want returns, rivals are circling, and someone else could be racing to market with your idea. But rather than letting that pressure paralyze him, Aravind Srinivas, the co-founder and CEO of $14 billion search startup Perplexity, uses it as fuel. 'You should assume that if you have a big hit, if your company is something that can make revenue on the scale of hundreds of millions of dollars or potentially billions of dollars, you should always assume that a model company will copy it,' Srinivas recently said at Y Combinator's AI Startup School. 'You've got to live with that fear and you have to embrace it. Realize that your mode comes from moving fast and building your own identity around what you're doing because users at the end care.' For the 31-year-old, embracing that pressure has helped him build out a multi-billion-dollar AI-powered search engine that rivals the innovation of tech giants Google and Microsoft, as well as fellow newcomers OpenAI and Anthropic. Perplexity's success has even caught the eye of Apple, which has reportedly had talks about purchasing Perplexity. Fortune reached out to Perplexity for further comment. 'I don't do anything other than work' For Srinivas, staying ahead of the competition admittedly means frequently sacrificing work–life balance. 'I don't do anything other than working, sadly. I listen to podcasts and audiobooks whenever I can. I spend a lot of time on X (which is both good and bad),' Srinivas said in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) earlier this year. While he still makes time to spend time with family on the weekends—and even hit the gym three times a week—he emphasized that persistence matters: 'Work incredibly hard. There is no substitute for it,' he said to the Y Combinator crowd. 'There's real benefit from embracing that fear and sleeping with that fear and waking up every day and feeling excited about what you're doing to build because that's the only thing that'll keep you going.' AI will make it easier than ever to become a billionaire, predicts tech leaders Luckily (or not) for Srinivas, he's about to get more motivation as the competition gets thicker: AI has ushered in an era where building out a business is easier than ever. After all, generative technology can help create business plans in just a matter of seconds. OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman believes this will lead to entrepreneurship growing exponentially. 'In my little group chat with my tech CEO friends, there's this betting pool for the first year that there is a one-person billion-dollar company,' Altman told Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian in a 2024 interview. 'Which would have been unimaginable without AI, and now will happen.' And while that dream of a one-person, billion-dollar company has yet to come to fruition, other tech leaders have conceded it's bound to happen eventually—and have even raised the ceiling. Billionaire Mark Cuban predicts that AI will eventually help crown the world's first trillionaire. 'We haven't seen the best or the craziest of what [AI is] going to be able to do,' Cuban told the High Performance podcast in an episode published late last month. 'And not only do I think it'll create a trillionaire, but it could be just one dude in the basement. That's how crazy it could be.' This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CEO of $14 billion AI firm Perplexity says the secret to success is ‘sleeping with that fear' that your competitor will steal your idea
Building a billion-dollar company is hard enough—but keeping others from stealing your big idea and doing it better might be even harder, says Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. As Sam Altman and Mark Cuban predict AI will create a wave of new billionaire (and even trillionaire) founders, Srinivas says that looming threat should serve as motivation, not fear. Being a startup founder today means operating with a constant sense of urgency. The clock is always ticking—investors want returns, rivals are circling, and someone else could be racing to market with your idea. But rather than letting that pressure paralyze him, Aravind Srinivas, the co-founder and CEO of $14 billion search startup Perplexity, uses it as fuel. 'You should assume that if you have a big hit, if your company is something that can make revenue on the scale of hundreds of millions of dollars or potentially billions of dollars, you should always assume that a model company will copy it,' Srinivas recently said at Y Combinator's AI Startup School. 'You've got to live with that fear and you have to embrace it. Realize that your mode comes from moving fast and building your own identity around what you're doing because users at the end care.' For the 31-year-old, embracing that pressure has helped him build out a multi-billion-dollar AI-powered search engine that rivals the innovation of tech giants Google and Microsoft, as well as fellow newcomers OpenAI and Anthropic. Perplexity's success has even caught the eye of Apple, which has reportedly had talks about purchasing Perplexity. Fortune reached out to Perplexity for further comment. 'I don't do anything other than work' For Srinivas, staying ahead of the competition admittedly means frequently sacrificing work–life balance. 'I don't do anything other than working, sadly. I listen to podcasts and audiobooks whenever I can. I spend a lot of time on X (which is both good and bad),' Srinivas said in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) earlier this year. While he still makes time to spend time with family on the weekends—and even hit the gym three times a week—he emphasized that persistence matters: 'Work incredibly hard. There is no substitute for it,' he said to the Y Combinator crowd. 'There's real benefit from embracing that fear and sleeping with that fear and waking up every day and feeling excited about what you're doing to build because that's the only thing that'll keep you going.' AI will make it easier than ever to become a billionaire, predicts tech leaders Luckily (or not) for Srinivas, he's about to get more motivation as the competition gets thicker: AI has ushered in an era where building out a business is easier than ever. After all, generative technology can help create business plans in just a matter of seconds. OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman believes this will lead to entrepreneurship growing exponentially. 'In my little group chat with my tech CEO friends, there's this betting pool for the first year that there is a one-person billion-dollar company,' Altman told Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian in a 2024 interview. 'Which would have been unimaginable without AI, and now will happen.' And while that dream of a one-person, billion-dollar company has yet to come to fruition, other tech leaders have conceded it's bound to happen eventually—and have even raised the ceiling. Billionaire Mark Cuban predicts that AI will eventually help crown the world's first trillionaire. 'We haven't seen the best or the craziest of what [AI is] going to be able to do,' Cuban told the High Performance podcast in an episode published late last month. 'And not only do I think it'll create a trillionaire, but it could be just one dude in the basement. That's how crazy it could be.' This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Time of India
15-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Perplexity AI's Aravind Srinivas warns aspiring entrepreneurs of tech giants copying successful ideas: ‘Learn to live with that fear'
Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of AI startup Perplexity, offered candid advice to aspiring entrepreneurs at Y Combinator's AI Startup School on Monday. While speaking at the event, he urged the students to be prepared for Big Tech to replicate their ideas. Srinivas also revealed that at the launch event, Perplexity allowed its chatbot to browse the web, a feature that has been adopted by its competitors like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Srinivas also emphasised that startups must learn to live with the constant threat of being copied. So, you will have to learn to live with that fear,' he said. Srinivas, while speaking at Y Combinator's AI Startup School, went on to warn that bigger companies will "copy anything that's good.' Aravind Srinivas warns students about Big Tech companies According to a report by Business Insider, the 31-year-old CEO warned the undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students that the big tech companies, like Google, Meta, and OpenAI, constantly look for new revenue streams that can be easily replicated by any innovation. "If your company is something that can make revenue on the scale of hundreds of millions of dollars or potentially billions of dollars, you should always assume that a model company will copy it," Srinivas said. Perplexity paved the way for real by launching an 'answer engine' Srinivas also shared that Perplexity launched as an 'answer engine' designed to deliver accurate, streamlined responses using 'real-time' web searches. At the time, most competing chatbots were limited to answering questions based solely on the pre-trained, often months-old data. In December 2022, Perplexity debuted its answer engine. Well, just three months later, Google introduced web-browsing capabilities with Bard, now known as Gemini. ChatGPT added similar functionality in May 2023, while Anthropic's Claude gained real-time web search support in March 2025. Aravind Srinivas envisions a browser that acts like a cognitive OS, running parallel AI will pull from your personal context, mail, calendar, and even social apps to assist with complex query becomes a live process, like Chrome tabs but OpenAI to launch AI-powered web browser Srinivas also asked the young founders to work 'incredibly hard' and 'not get discouraged by imitation. He urged the founders to keep working on creating a unique product and resilient brands. Meanwhile, in related news, OpenAI is reportedly gearing up to launch an AI-powered web browser that could directly rival Google Chrome, according to Reuters. This new launch focuses on redefining how users interact with the internet by embedding ChatGPT-like functions. To stay updated on the stories that are going viral, follow Indiatimes Trending.
