Aravind Srinivas’s saga starts with marathon coding nights in Chennai, underpinned by dreams inherited from his mother. From near expulsion in Berkeley’s AI labs to assembling a team of mavericks, insiders recall Aravind’s refusal to compromise, shutting down broken products overnight and holding public bug-fix sessions on Discord.

Betrayals, like leaked Chrome extension code, fueled his “build fast or die” mentality.

Founding Perplexity, Aravind pushed past investor skepticism and outright acquisition offers, holding tight to independence while battling Google and OpenAI.

The result: a global answer engine known for radical transparency, speed, deep research, and conversational answers, driven by a leadership style where insiders and outsiders work side by side to build the future of knowledge, from India’s youngest billionaire.

From scanning paper menus for Bain consultants to building Zomato, Deepinder Goyal’s journey is all grit. He navigated trademark drama, scaled into 20 countries, and survived internal battles, including losing co-founder Pankaj Chaddah. Insiders recall the pain of layoffs, the dramas of buy-versus-build decisions, and wild pivots from food discovery to delivery, dark kitchens, and now lifestyle through District.

District.in marks Zomato’s next revolution, a going-out platform for movies, events, and dining, spun off from Eternal, with fierce competition against BookMyShow and hyperlocal startups. Nugget.com’s rise as an AI SaaS platform further cements Deepinder’s obsession with solving customer problems, while Eternal’s flat teams, war rooms, and data-driven decisions ensure Zomato never stands still.

Sridhar Vembu’s journey is unlike any Valley founder’s story. Starting with AdventNet and bootstrapping Zoho from scratch, he rewrote the rules by rejecting VC and focusing on profitability, all while growing a SaaS powerhouse from the rural villages of Tamil Nadu.

Insiders describe the radical idea to source and train non-college talent, a move that transformed both careers and communities, with Zoho Schools now feeding fresh minds directly into high-impact tech roles.

Culture runs deep: Vembu cycles between offices and village campuses, debating ethics and humility, reviewing code, and organizing daily operations with a dose of frugality.

Behind global expansion, product pivots, and ManageEngine spin-offs lies the secret sauce, an internal ecosystem where rural talent, flat hierarchy, and intense local focus deliver what urban competitors can only dream of.