Trust, Velocity, and Building the Answer Engine: Dmitry Shevelenko of Perplexity speaks to Farouk Hussein
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Why does Perplexity believe it can challenge Google’s search dominance?
The thing I have most confidence in is that six months from now, I'm gonna have a top three priority that today I have no idea what it is. Uh lit literally like no idea, uh, not even like a clue. And that is, you know, that is my alpha, right? Is my willingness to like, you know, know that there are unknown unknowns uh coming and that that we will, you know, find a way to uh um you know, realize those opportunities when when they materialize.
Welcome to Orbit, the HG podcast series where we speak to leaders and innovators from across the software and tech ecosystem to discuss key trends that are changing the way that we all do business. I'm Farouk Hussein, a partner at HG, focused on transatlantic software investing. Today, we're diving into one of the most consequential questions in technology: Can anyone actually unseat Google and its search dominance? For two decades, Countless well-funded startups have tried and failed, but something different is happening in 2025. Gen AI has created the first genuine opening in the search wars since Google itself disrupted the industry roughly 20 years ago. And at the center of this battle is Perplexity AI, a company that's gone from obscurity to roughly 800 million monthly queries in fewer than three years.
But perplexity isn't just another ChatGPT clone with search bolted on. They're building something fundamentally different, an answer engine that they believe will replace how we find information online. And in July, they launched Comet, a native AI browser that went GA today. I'm thrilled to be joined today by Dmitry Shevolenko, Chief Business Officer at Perplexity. You joined the company in October of 2023, frankly, at a time when taking on Google seemed fairly unthinkable. Um so thank you for joining us today.
Oh, it's great to be here. Uh excited to keep chatting.
Yeah. So I think we met this summer at HG's um senior software leadership gathering in Lucerne, Switzerland. You'll recall that Jeffrey Hinton was our keynote. Love to um hear what I
lost in the pickleball tournament. That was that was uh that that was a painful memory. I I still can't uh let go up, but yeah.
That's right. You did make it to the championship match and you lost to one of our partners, Chris Fielding. And I think you promised fifty percent of the equity and perplexity if you lost, if I'm not mistaken. Um uh any takeaways from the event? What did you think? Um how d how did you enjoy it?
a general takeaway whenever I meet with with senior leaders is uh An understanding that this time it is different, you know, that you cannot be wait for others to figure out what AI transformation means for your company, for your industry, um, that you actually have to be leading to not be behind rather than, you know, in in in other similar transitions, uh, you know, the smart move may have been let others figure it out, and then we'll copy the best practices. the foundational capabilities are evolving so rapidly that everyone needs to be building ahead. Yeah.
Yeah. So maybe a good segue to joining perplexity. So you've worked at a number of um very impressive organizations in leadership roles like Uber and LinkedIn and Meta. So you know what strikes me the most is that as I mentioned before, joining Perplexity in twenty twenty three did not seem obvious. So what did you see that others didn't?
Well, I was using the product. Uh and I quickly realized I was addicted to asking more and more questions on perplexity. Uh and you know, I the the last time I felt that was using Uber and I remembered a similar feeling. Uh, you know, my my year uh at undergrad was like the first year that everyone had access to Facebook uh for for the entire four years and And so there was a pattern match of like, oh, when when I personally get really excited about a new consumer internet product, uh, you know, good things happen. Um and how did you discover it exactly? So I was, um, I mean, I knew about perplexity. I was introduced through one of the the company, Series A investors, uh, who thought that, you know, me and Ervin, that the CEO would get along.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Why does Perplexity believe it can challenge Google’s search dominance?
0:04–7:13
2
How did Perplexity’s unconventional distribution strategy with carriers and OEMs fuel rapid growth?
7:13–17:44
3
What does “execution velocity” mean for Perplexity and how is it maintained?
17:44–26:01
4
Why does Perplexity prioritize trust and accuracy over ad revenue?
26:01–33:10
5
How does the Comet native AI browser create a competitive edge?
33:10–40:02
6
What lessons did Dmitry learn from his previous startups and Tortoise that shape Perplexity’s culture?
40:02–41:56
Speakers
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