‘Sleeping With That Fear…’: Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas On Staying Ahead In The AI Race

In the fast-moving world of artificial intelligence (AI), standing still is not an option. And for Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, success is rooted in accepting, even embracing, the fear of being outpaced.

Speaking at Y Combinator’s AI Startup School, Srinivas offered a candid insight into the mindset that has propelled Perplexity, now valued at $14 billion, into the AI spotlight.

At the centre of his philosophy lies a single truth— “the fear to be copied” and let that push you forward.

“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,” he said.

For Aravind Srinivas, fear isn’t something to avoid, but instead it can be a driving force. In the fast-moving world of AI, according to him, staying sharp and restless can help startups stay ahead.

“Mainly because they are really looking for revenue. They raise tens of billions, or close to 50 billion, and they need to justify all that capex spend. They need to keep searching for new ways to make money. So they will copy anything that's good. I think you got to live with that fear,” he added.

That looming threat, Srinivas says, is not a burden but a motivator. The way to stay ahead is by moving fast and building something that users connect with, something that isn’t easily replicated.

“You have to embrace it and realise that your moat comes from moving fast and building your own identity around what you're doing because users at the end care,” he said during the conversation with the American startup accelerator.

“Like when you're trying to get a specific person for your house help, you are searching for that specific person, and you're not going for a general agency that handles all of it. So, I think 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 going to build. Because that's the only thing that'll keep you going.”

Srinivas’s advice to entrepreneurs remains clear. “Work incredibly hard. There is no substitute for it,” he told the Y Combinator audience.

Srinivas, who co-founded Perplexity in 2022, has led the company through rapid growth in a sector dominated by giants like Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic. Despite tough competition, Perplexity has stood out with its real-time and citation-based AI search, reports Fortune. Reportedly, even Apple has shown interest in buying it.