India's youngest billionaire, Nikhil Kamath, made an unexpected request to Perplexity AI CEO, Aravind Srinivas. He offered to intern at the company for three months, completely free of cost!
How would you react as a CEO if a billionaire suddenly requests to join your company as an intern? Well, Perplexity AI co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas faced the exact same thing when, after a long productive conversation, Zerodha co-founder, Nikhil Kamath unexpectedly expressed his interest in interning at Perplexity AI! Well, Arvind was visibly surprised at this unforeseen request.
Nikhil Kamath is an entrepreneur and the co-founder of Zerodha. At only 38 years old, he is the youngest billionaire in India, with a reported net worth of 3.45 billion USD. Recently, in his WTF Online Podcast, Nikhil had a chat with Perplexity AI CEO and co-founder, Aravind Srinivas, where they talked about various aspects of technology, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), among other things.
Towards the end of his podcast, Nikhil took Aravind by surprise when he jokingly, yet somewhat seriously, asked if he could work as an intern at the company for three months, free of charge. He inquired:
“Do you think it might be possible for me to come be an intern, work for maybe three months at Perplexity, free of charge?”
Srinivas was clearly amused at the request and responded, “Well, you're way more accomplished for doing that, but—” before Kamath interrupted to stress his genuine interest. The Zerodha co-founder said:
“No, but I'd love to. Like, this is genuine. Like, I feel like I'd love to come live there for a couple of months, learn some stuff, and come back. Because I do feel like I'm not learning enough right now.”
Even though Srinivas was visibly surprised at the turn that the discussion took, he was also amused at the genuineness of Kamath's offer, given his high stature in the business world. He happily welcomed the idea, saying, “I mean, we'd be very honoured to have you.” In response, Nikhil doubled down on his statement, humorously adding:
“I'm not joking, I'm just gonna be there in the next 30 days maybe and pester you every day.”
Kamath’s unexpected request quickly grabbed attention online, with social media users debating whether he was simply joking or if the billionaire co-founder of Zerodha was actually considering stepping into an intern’s role to gain new insights. Netizens lauded Nikhil's grounded approach and learner mindset, claiming that this was the quality that made him stand out from other billionaires.
One user commented, "Casual way of billionaire learning if they want to understand about anything. The difference between other billionaires and Nikhil is he makes it public so that everyone have access to it. Love you Nikhil for taking us along with you." A second comment read, "Nikhil’s learner mindset is what sets him apart from other podcasters/ interviewers, he asks questions as he himself wants to gauge the information from the guest, truly appreciable."
Well, Nikhil Kamath's playful yet genuine request to intern at perplexity AI reinstates the fact that success never means stopping the learning process, rather, it is about learning new things continuously. What do you think about Kamath's surprising request?
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