In The Room with Johnny Ho, Co-Founder of Perplexity
Empowering the Future of Generative AI Search with Johnny Ho, Co-Founder of Perplexity
Welcome back to a new season of The Room Podcast! To kick off Season 11, we’re joined by Johnny Ho, co-founder of Perplexity, an AI-powered platform transforming the way everyday consumers interact with search. Johnny shares his path from competitive programming to entrepreneurship and offers insights into the development of Perplexity’s core product, which aims to deliver precise, reliable answers in a simple, intuitive way.
In this episode, we covered topics such as how Perplexity uses AI to deliver accurate and reliable search results using multiple LLMs, building a user-first product in a competitive tech space, and the importance of finding investors who want to work with you in the right ways.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or watch on Youtube
Theme 1: How to Build a Product Your Consumers Rely On
In the initial stages of ideation, Ho recalls the team producing numerous demos of early Minimum Viable Products (MVPs). He likens this process to navigating an “idea maze,” a concept familiar to founders seeking product-market fit. Ho advises early-stage founders to “have several ideas but do not over-invest in one”. He recommends developing multiple branches of ideas while gathering early feedback, emphasizing the importance of maintaining generality to ensure transferability of the user base.
For Perplexity, the breakthrough moment occurred when Ho recognized a common thread among their various products. He found himself consistently using Perplexity’s generative-based search to answer questions he “couldn’t find elsewhere,” and frequently demonstrating the product.
As the team developed the earliest versions of the user experience, there are a few main pillars which drove the development of main functionalities.
- “Answer first, but verify” — leading to the inclusion of reference links and images
- Understanding the limitations of Large Language Models (LLMs) and building user-first solutions
- Allowing users to choose their preferred LLM in a “plug and play” model
This user-centric approach has proven successful for the company. Perplexity has seen remarkable growth, scaling from 100 employees to processing over 250 million queries per month in 2024 — up from 500 million queries total in 2023.
Theme 2: Disrupting AI One Consumer At a Time
Throughout this rapid expansion, the team has maintained a sharp focus on their core user base of research and knowledge workers, with a consistent go-to-market strategy tailored to meet their needs. However, what’s evolving is their ambition to have greater staying power within workflows, aiming to expand their presence beyond quick lookups to deeper, more integrated research processes. Known for excelling in both shallow and deep research, the company is now building a discovery platform to help users learn more effectively while expanding its feature set.
A key to Perplexity’s success is building a moat around its consumer app, centered on user trust and reliable knowledge-driven use cases. With a clear focus on their target demographic of research and knowledge workers, they are passionate about creating a platform where information is easily searchable and well-connected, empowering users to discover insights more effectively. User feedback from “power user” features has highlighted the demand for tools that streamline complex research tasks and make them more efficient.
When asked about the possibility of expanding into the B2B space, Perplexity remains focused on consumer needs. Any shift toward business use cases would come from the organic demands of their customer base rather than traditional enterprise channels. Their journey continues to be driven by how users want to leverage AI in their daily work, positioning them to keep disrupting the AI space one consumer at a time.
Theme 3: Advice for Founders on Prioritization, Competition, and Self-Doubt
Ho describes his journey to founderhood as one he “stumbled” into, driven by his desire to work in small, impactful teams. This mindset eventually led him to co-found Perplexity alongside Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yartes, and Andy Konwinski. Reflecting on the early days of Perplexity, Ho emphasized the importance of figuring out team dynamics — a critical yet challenging aspect of building a startup.
For founders, Ho advises focusing on understanding each team member’s strengths and weaknesses. Despite coming from diverse backgrounds, the founding team at Perplexity shared three key points of alignment that fueled their success:
- Highly technical experience — Each member had deep technical expertise that complemented the others.
- An “all in” mindset — Everyone was fully committed to the venture.
- Prioritization of the company over individual needs — The success of the company came first.
When selecting investors, Ho advises focusing on those who take the time to deeply understand the problems you’re solving, particularly those who help address your immediate challenges over a 3–6 month period. Handling doubt requires resilience — “Don’t take things personally,” he suggests, as criticism is inevitable in the founder’s journey. As for competition, Ho reminds founders that “the game is not zero-sum, and it’s just the beginning,” encouraging a long-term view over short-term rivalries. He also emphasizes the value of user feedback, noting that negative comments indicate users care about your product — it’s indifference that should be more concerning.
Look out for another episode of The Room Podcast next week, October 7th!
