By TOI Lifestyle Desk
Publication Date: 2026-10-06 02:00:00
Imagine missing your dream course by just 0.01. That is exactly what happened to Aravind Srinivas, a young student from Chennai. After getting into IIT Madras for engineering, he tried to switch to another branch after his first semester, fell short of the cut-off by the tiniest margin, and felt another blow when he was rejected by MIT.Most people would have seen these as the end of the road. Srinivas saw them as motivation in a new direction and channelised his failure into success; today he is the co-founder of a renowned AI company and has a net worth of $2.1 billion, according to Forbes.Most success stories in the world do not follow a straight path, especially for those not born with a silver spoon in their mouth and those who carve out an identity for themselves.When doors of opportunity get closed in your face over and over again at the same time, it feels like the end of the road.Yet history is full of people who turned those moments into fuel, about how a detour from their planned route took them to immense heights of success, and this is one of those stories.
Meet Aravind Srinivas: The co-founder of Perplexity who channelised his failures into success
Aravind Srinivas, 32, is the CEO and co-founder of Perplexity with Andy Konwinski, Denis Yarats, and Johnny Ho, which was valued at $20 billion in early 2026.Srinivas got into IIT Madras, where he studied electrical engineering, but after the first semester he…
