Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity AI, appeared on the Lex Fridman Podcast, where he expressed admiration for the unyielding determination of successful entrepreneurs like Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang.
What Happened: In a recent episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast, Srinivas pointed out that a common characteristic among successful entrepreneurs is their unwavering commitment to progress.
"One common trait across every successful founder is they were relentless. So that's why I really like this, an obsession about the user."
He used Musk as a prime example, praising his ability to disregard critics and overcome obstacles through sheer determination.
The Perplexity CEO also spoke about the tech mogul's focus on direct customer relationships, as exemplified in his strategy with the EV giant. Srinivas noted Musk's decision to bypass dealerships and establish a direct relationship with customers, despite the inherent challenges.
In the same vein, Srinivas commended Huang for his obsession with continuous system improvement and challenging the status quo. He highlighted the Nvidia CEO's unique management style, which involves receiving simultaneous reports from all system components to gain a holistic understanding.
"This guy just keeps on delivering the next generation. That's like the B-100s are going to be 30x more efficient on inference compared to the H-100s. Imagine that," he said about Huang.
According to Srinivas, both Musk and Huang embody the significance of understanding every detail to make informed business decisions and overcome challenging bottlenecks.
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Why It Matters: The praise from Srinivas comes in the wake of several instances where Musk and Huang have agreed on several development approaches.
Earlier this month, the Tesla CEO agreed with Huang's prediction that humanoid robots will soon be as common as cars. Previously, Musk also agreed with Huang's unconventional management style of not scheduling one-on-one meetings unless specifically requested.
Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine backed by Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, Databricks, Bessemer Venture Partners, Susan Wojcicki, Jeff Dean, Yann LeCun, Andrej Karpathy, Nat Friedman, and Garry Tan. The company achieved unicorn status in April following a funding round that more than doubled its valuation to over $1 billion.
Huang previously said, "I've been using Perplexity. I enjoy ChatGPT as well. I use both almost every day," adding that he relies on these two AI chatbots for "research," including computer-aided drug discovery.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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