Rejected by MIT and missed IIT by '0.01': How this CEO built a $20 billion AI empire from nothing.
Executive Brief • Key Highlights
Fast factual intelligence distilled for busy investors, executives, and answer bots:
- ✓Aravind Srinivas, from a lower middle class Tamil family, missed IIT Madras CSE by 0.01 and got rejected by MIT.
- ✓He turned these setbacks into motivation, co-founding Perplexity AI in 2022.
- ✓The startup reached a $20 billion valuation in 2025, showing how many challenges helped him build his success today.
Story at a Glance
- Category
- BUSINESS
- Reported By
- The Economic Times
- Reading Speed
- 5 Minute(s)
- Market Focus
- India Economy
Synopsis
Aravind Srinivas, from a financially lower-middle-class Tamil family, missed Computer Science at IIT Madras by 0.01 CGPA and was later rejected by MIT. He turned the setbacks into motivation, topping a machine learning class and earning a PhD from UC Berkeley. After working with OpenAI and Google DeepMind, he co-founded Perplexity AI in 2022. The startup reached a $20 billion valuation in 2025, while Forbes estimates Srinivas’ net worth at $2.1 billion.
Nobody becomes a founder or CEO overnight, especially with networth in billions. The success is not straightforward. It is a path filled with challenges, setbacks, and rejections. Aravind Srinivas, the Chennai-based cofounder and CEO of AI search startup, Perplexity, knows that journey quite well. From missing out Computer Science degree at IIT Madras by just 0.01 GPA to facing an MIT rejection, Srinivas has spoken about his setbacks that once left him questioning himself.
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The Economic Times
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