'Positively provocative...': PerplexityAI CEO Aravind Srinivas defends Piyush Goyal's startup comment

Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and chief executive of Perplexity AI, Wednesday defended Union Minister Piyush Goyal's remarks on the need for Indian startups to set higher aspirations. Speaking virtually at the Rising Bharat Summit 2025 in New Delhi, Srinivas described Goyal's comments as "a very positively provocative comment and meant to instigate to build," aiming to spark ambition within the Indian startup landscape.

Goyal's remarks, made at the Startup Mahakumbh 2025, drew attention to the limited focus of Indian startups on food delivery and gig work. He questioned, "Should we aspire to be, or are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls?" This comparison with Chinese startups underscores the need for Indian firms to expand their horizons and pursue more significant achievements.

Srinivas urged venture capitalists (VCs) in India to embrace risk, challenging the prevalent conservative investment mindset. He noted that, "VCs in India are still very risk averse, and they like to invest in things that they wouldn't lose money on, rather than investing in things they would potentially make a lot of money on, but are okay, losing some money in some incorrect bets," advocating a shift towards accepting potential high-reward, high-risk opportunities.

Highlighting the importance of calculating risk, Srinivas argued that VCs should adopt a mindset where they accept that "95% of my investments would fail, but 5% of my investments would return me 100/1,000x." Such a mindset is often lacking in India, potentially stifling innovation and growth in the startup sector.

Perplexity, Srinivas's company, is already a significant player in India, ranking among the top ten countries in terms of revenue, and "even close to the top five." The company plans to expand its content offerings, including entertainment and media, tailored specifically for local audiences.

Srinivas also shared plans for a potential India-specific pricing strategy, though details remain unspecified as he "does not know the number yet." Emphasising quality, he stated, "Our inference is expensive, we don't want to put a lower tier quality product for saving costs," indicating a commitment to maintaining high standards.

Furthermore, Srinivas encouraged engineers to integrate AI into their coding processes, warning that "If you're not using AI when you're writing code, you're essentially stagnating yourself by sticking with the old workflow and old whole tooling." This highlights the critical role of AI in advancing current technological practices.