Dean’s Speaker Series From PhD to CEO: Aravind Srinivas on Reinventing Search with Perplexity AI
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Oct 21, 2025 
Aravind Srinivas, Co-founder and CEO of Perplexity, shares his journey from notable roles at OpenAI, Google, and DeepMind to leading a major AI-driven search company. He discusses his motivation for starting Perplexity, emphasizing transparency and user curiosity. Aravind explores the balance between speed and accuracy in AI, the importance of asking better questions, and the challenges of building complex systems. He also reflects on leadership persistence, founding grit, and designing a browser experience that prioritizes personal relevance and privacy.
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Ship Imperfect, Improve Fast
- Build products that are 80% perfect now and improve them rapidly over months.
- Have a clear vision for where AI will be in six to twelve months and iterate fast.
Unchanging User Demands
- Core user expectations won't change: speed, accuracy, and delightful UX are non-negotiable.
- Personalization and working with users' context will define winning products.
Make Curiosity The KPI
- Measure mission success by how many questions users ask daily and weekly.
- Design UI to suggest follow-up questions to keep users curious and engaged.