Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has shared two unconventional lessons he learned from Tesla CEO Elon Musk and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. In the 20VC podcast, Srinivas said the two tech leaders shaped his views on entrepreneurship, long-term ambition, and risk-taking. As per him, Jensen Huans operates NVIDIA as if the company has could fail at any moment despite its success. On the other hand, Elon Musk focuses on building for a larger mission instead of personal wealth. He said both lessons have influenced how he thinks about building and running a company in the fast-paced AI domain.
The Perplexity CEO said one of the most important lessons came from Jensen Huang’s leadership. Srinivas said, ‘Think about it. $5 trillion, guaranteed to make $500 billion in revenue in the next two years. He has the most advanced chips in the world. And he operates with the mentality that he could be 30 days away from going out of business. That is what it takes to be Jensen Huang.’
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Talking about Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Srinivas said Musk taught him a different lesson, which was the importance of working toward a larger goal rather than focusing on only money. Srinivas said, ‘If you look at his pay package for SpaceX, it’s structured around creating a colony on Mars with a million inhabitants. It’s not motivating to be worth 10 trillion in net worth or something.’
That’s not it, as the Perplexity CEO also shared his views on work and retirement during the podcast. He said he doesn’t support the idea of developing a company, selling it and then stepping away from work after becoming wealthy. He also said that work should be about more than money and suggested that continuing to build, create and contribute is important even after achieving financial success.
