Indian techie reveals he rejected Perplexity AI's offer in 2022, calls it ‘worst financial decision ever’

An Indian engineer reflected on his decision to reject an offer from Perplexity AI in favour of Alameda Research/FTX.

Techies on social media are sharing their biggest regrets after turning down job offers from startups in the past that have now made it big in the tech world. Among them, one Indian engineer recalled his “worst financial decision ever” by turning down a chance to be a founding engineer for Aravind Srinivas' Perplexity AI back in 2022.

Aditya Baradwaj shared a screenshot of Aravind Srinivas offering him a chance to be a founding engineer at Perplexity AI.(X/@aditya_baradwaj)

The engineer was replying to another techie's post about a similar offer he declined. He said he had offers from Srinivas and another US based company which he chose over the Indian-origin CEO's firm. Unfortunately, that company was Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto firm FTX and Alameda Research -- which collapsed and are now worth nothing.

"I’ve got you beat for worst financial decision. (I said no because of how well things were going at Alameda Research/FTX),” wrote Aditya Baradwaj.

Baradwaj shared a screenshot of Srinivas offering him a chance to be a founding engineer (Often the first engineer hired or first employee) at what has since become Perplexity AI.

Take a look at the post here:

“Hey Aditya - been a long time - would you like to catch up some time? I am starting a company building LMs for businesses and and would like to talk to you about it for a founding engineer," Srinivas wrote in a message on July 18, 2022.

Baradwaj replied in affirmative and scheduled a meeting with Srinivas but he later opted out of the offer to focus on working at Alameda Research/FTX. “Kudos to Aravind Srinivas and team though, Perplexity is a great product," he said in a later post.

Srinivas shared Baradwaj's post with a simple message: 'e/acc vs effective altruism'

The AI CEO compared effective accelerationism, a philosophy movement that advocates for rapid technological progress with effective altruism, which uses evidence and reason to find the most effective ways to help.

Baradwaj agreed with Perplexity CEO's opinion and added, "Yup, this is why e/acc will win."