Perplexity AI co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas shared two key entrepreneurship lessons he learned from Nvidia Corp's (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk during an episode of the "20VC" podcast hosted by venture capitalist Harry Stebbings, released Monday.

Srinivas said Huang taught him the importance of operating with constant urgency, while Musk showed him that great founders are driven by purpose rather than money.

Founder Mindset

Srinivas said one of the biggest lessons he learned from Huang is to always stay alert, regardless of how successful a company becomes.

Speaking about Nvidia, Srinivas said Huang runs the chip giant with the mindset that it could be just 30 days away from going out of business.

"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," Srinivas said. "And he operates with the mentality that he could be 30 days away from going out of business."

Srinivas added that Huang repeatedly reminds people around him that Nvidia is only a month away from going out of business, reflecting the level of intensity required to stay ahead in a fast-moving industry.

Mission Over Money

From Musk, Srinivas said he learned the importance of building for a larger mission instead of chasing wealth.

He pointed to Musk's compensation structure at SpaceX, saying it is tied to the long-term goal of building a colony on Mars with one million people.

"If you look at his pay package for SpaceX, it's structured around creating a colony on Mars with a million inhabitants," Srinivas said. "It's not motivating to be worth 10 trillion in net worth or something."

Srinivas also pushed back against the idea of building a company, selling it and retiring early. He rejected the FIRE, or Financial Independence Retire Early, philosophy, which has gained popularity in the tech community.

"You always need to be doing something," he said. "You need to work forever."

His comments are consistent with remarks he made earlier this year, when he said AI-driven job displacement could be part of a "glorious future," arguing that AI tools could help people build their own businesses rather than rely solely on traditional jobs.

Perplexity is also facing growing scrutiny over its AI products as the company remains involved in a legal dispute with Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) over allegations that its AI shopping agents accessed customer accounts without authorization.

Separately, Srinivas told CNBC earlier this month that Perplexity plans to go public in 2028, regardless of how markets respond to upcoming AI listings from Anthropic or OpenAI.

Disclaimer: This content was produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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