'Wanted to recruit him in 2004, but...': Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu on Trump's AI advisor Sriram Krishnan

Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu on Monday revealed an interesting anecdote while congratulating Indian American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan on his appointment as Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence. Vembu disclosed that he had once wanted to recruit Krishnan in 2004 but missed the opportunity as Microsoft had already snapped him up.

"Back in 2004, when Sriram was graduating from SRM University, I came across his blog – one of the early programming blogs from India at the time," Vembu said. "I was so impressed I wanted to recruit him, but Microsoft had already hired him. We have been in touch on and off as he later moved to Silicon Valley and became an entrepreneur. President Trump has found a great talent for his technology team."

On Sunday, US President-elect Donald Trump announced Sriram Krishnan as Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence. "Sriram Krishnan will serve as the Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy,” Trump said.

Krishnan, who has previously led product teams at Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Snap, will work alongside David O Sacks, the White House AI and Crypto Czar. In his new role, Krishnan will focus on ensuring America's continued leadership in AI and shaping AI policy across government.

Sriram started his career at Microsoft as a founding member of Windows Azure. Until recently, he was a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a personal investor in companies like SpaceX, Figma, and Scale.ai, and held leadership roles at Meta, X (formerly Twitter), and Microsoft.

Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, also congratulated Krishnan, praising his curiosity and innovative spirit. "Sriram is one of the most curious people with a great network and high agency that I have met. He's also been a big supporter of open-source AI and tinkers a lot with things himself as an early adopter," Srinivas said.

Sanjeev Joshipura, Executive Director of Indiaspora, lauded Krishnan as an insightful thinker whose experience blends public policy, international affairs, investing, and technology. "For several years, Sriram has been an influential commentator in the artificial intelligence realm. His previous work will stand him in good stead as he serves the nation in this important role," Joshipura said. "As Indiaspora continues our thought leadership work on AI in the United States and abroad, we look forward to engaging closely with Sriram."

Sriram Krishnan, who holds a Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology from SRM Engineering College, Anna University, also co-hosts "The Aarthi and Sriram Show," a podcast with his wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy.