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Sriram Krishnan

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Sriram Krishnan
Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 20, 2025
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byPosition established
Personal details
BornJanuary 1984[1]
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Spouse
​
(m. 2010)​
EducationSRM University (B.Tech)
Occupation
Known forGeneral partner of Andreessen Horowitz
Co-host of The Aarthi and Sriram Show

Sriram Krishnan (born 1984) is an Indian-American venture capitalist, podcaster, product manager and author. He was a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.[2][3] On December 22, 2024, US president-elect Donald Trump announced that he would be Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence in his incoming administration.[4]

He previously led product teams at Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Snap. In addition to his work as an investor and technologist, he and his wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy, rose to additional prominence in 2021 as podcast hosts.[5] WME represents the "tech power couple" of Krishnan and Aarthi Ramamurthy in film and television projects.[6]

In 2022, Krishnan announced that he was working with Elon Musk on the rebuilding of Twitter following Musk's acquisition of the company.[7]

In 2024, the Financial Times reported that Krishnan was active in international affairs, reintroducing Boris Johnson to Elon Musk, following Musk's nomination to the proposed Department of Government Efficiency.[8]

Early life and education

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Krishnan was born in Chennai, India,[9] in a middle-income family.[10] His life changed in the late 1990s when he managed to persuade his father to buy him a computer. As he still did not have internet access, Krishnan would buy coding books and practice coding basics every night. This prompted him to pursue a career in information technology.[11]

He earned his Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology from SRM University (2001–2005).[12]

Career

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Early career

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In 2007, he began working at Microsoft where he served as a program manager for Visual Studio. At Facebook, Krishnan built the Facebook Audience Network, a competitive platform to Google's ad technologies.[13][14][15] At Twitter, he led product and core user experience, driving a 20% annual user growth rate and launching a redesigned home page and events experience.[16][17][18]

Andreessen Horowitz

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Krishnan was appointed a general partner of American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz ("a16z") in February 2021.[19] He was anticipated to serve consumer and social markets, however he has also theorized on the impact of "deep tech" on society.[20][21][22]

In 2023 he was appointed to lead the firm's London office, its first non-US location.[2] The office is expected to serve Web3 investments as well as AI and other fields.[2][23] Krishnan announced that he would leave the firm at the end of 2024.[24]

Social media and AI

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In 2022, various news media reported that Krishnan was assisting Elon Musk in the revamp of Twitter following Musk's takeover of the company.[7][25][26] Additional reports named Krishnan as the leading candidate for the role of CEO of the newly private company.[27][28]

Krishnan penned a 2023 New York Times opinion column regarding social media, AI, and related fields. He predicted a rise in the number and diversity of online spaces due to decentralization and platforms like Farcaster, Bluesky and Mastodon.[29]

Political activities

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In 2024, Krishnan was reported as active in geopolitics. That year, president-elect Donald Trump selected Elon Musk to run a proposed Department of Government Efficiency ("DOGE"). Krishnan reintroduced Boris Johnson to Musk.[8] Krishnan was also reported as potentially leaving a16z at the end of the year to "be jumping into something I've wanted to spend [his] energy on," which was widely reported as being related to Musk's and Vivek Ramaswamy's work at DOGE. Others reported to be involved include Joe Lonsdale, Marc Andreesen, Bill Ackman, and Travis Kalanick.[30]

On December 22, 2024, US president-elect Donald Trump announced that he would be Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence in his incoming administration.[4]

The Aarthi and Sriram Show and other media

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In early 2021, Krishnan and his wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy, launched a Clubhouse talk show that "focuses on organic conversations on anything from startups to venture capitalism and cryptocurrencies."[31] An early appearance by Elon Musk on the Good Time Show was described as the first show that "broke Clubhouse"[32] by rapidly exceeding the limit of 5,000 simultaneous users. The desire to interact with a larger community led to a variety of later innovations to allow streaming and replaying of Clubhouse chats. On that episode, Elon Musk grilled Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev regarding the GameStop trading controversy.[33] As of December 2021, the show had over 187,000 subscribers, plus 735,000 subscribers between Krishnan and Ramamurthy's personal Clubhouse accounts.[34][9] Other guests have included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Diane von Fürstenberg, Tony Hawk, MrBeast,[35][31] and A.R. Rahman.[34][36]

In 2022, the Good Time Show moved to YouTube.[37] It then evolved to a podcasting format under the name The Aarthi and Sriram Show, with both audio and video content.[38] The Hollywood Reporter reported that the podcast had received more than 1 million downloads by early 2023.[38]

Personal life

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Krishnan is married to Aarthi Ramamurthy, co-host of The Aarthi and Sriram Show (formerly the Good Time Show) and a serial entrepreneur. They met in college in 2003 through a Yahoo! chat room related to a coding project and began dating in 2006 and eloped in 2010.[9]

References

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  1. ^ Krishnan, Sriramanarasimhan. "Sriramanarasimhan KRISHNAN". Gov.uk. Retrieved December 27, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c "Andreessen Horowitz to open first international office in London led by Sriram Krishnan". The Economic Times. June 12, 2023. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
  3. ^ "Sriram Krishnan, Author at Andreessen Horowitz". Andreessen Horowitz. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
  4. ^ a b PTI (December 23, 2024). "Trump appoints Indian American entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as senior policy advisor on Artificial Intelligence". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved December 23, 2024.
  5. ^
  6. ^ "WME Signs Tech Power Couple Sriram Krishnan and Aarthi Ramamurthy (EXCLUSIVE)". January 3, 2022.
  7. ^ a b Isaac, Mike; Mac, Ryan; Conger, Kate (October 31, 2022). "Elon Musk, Plus a Circle of Confidants, Tightens Control Over Twitter". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
  8. ^ a b Murphy, Hannah; Gross, Anna; Morris, Stephen (December 1, 2024). "Elon Musk is attacking Britain. Former PMs are building ties". Financial Times. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
  9. ^ a b c Hawgood, Alex (July 30, 2021). "These Clubhouse Hosts Are Keeping the Party Alive". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  10. ^ Who is Sriram Krishnan, Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Turned AI Policy Advisor for the White House? Times Of India, Dec 25, 2024
  11. ^ "Sriram Krishnan: The Indian-American 'helping' Elon Musk run Twitter". BBC News. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
  12. ^ "Meet Sriram Krishnan, the Chennai-born engineer helping Elon Musk run Twitter". WION. November 8, 2022. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
  13. ^ Carson, Biz. "Snapchat just poached a key ad exec from Facebook to turn on the money jets". Business Insider. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  14. ^ Wagner, Kurt (February 29, 2016). "Snapchat Hires Exec Who Ran Facebook's Ad Network". Vox. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  15. ^ D'Onfro, Jillian. "How an 'oddball' team created one of Facebook's biggest threats to Google". Business Insider. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  16. ^ "Snap, Facebook, Pop: Sriram Krishnan joins Twitter as senior director of product". TechCrunch. September 19, 2017. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  17. ^ PTI (September 23, 2017). "From Facebook, Snap, Now to Twitter: Sriram Krishnan | Siliconeer". Siliconeer. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  18. ^ Feiner, Lauren (February 6, 2020). "Twitter shares soar after reporting strong user numbers and miss on earnings". CNBC. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  19. ^ "Social platform veteran Sriram Krishnan is Andreessen Horowitz's latest general partner". TechCrunch. February 3, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  20. ^ "How can we define deep tech?". TechSPARK. April 1, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  21. ^ "Atlys raises $4.25M to make visa applications faster and easier". TechCrunch. October 28, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  22. ^ Yang, Peter. "Dan Romero (Farcaster): Building a Web3 Social Network for Thoughtful Conversations". creatoreconomy.so. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  23. ^ Browne, Ryan (June 12, 2023). "Andreessen Horowitz to open first office outside the U.S. in London in bet UK will become crypto hub". CNBC. Retrieved July 19, 2023.
  24. ^ "Andreessen Horowitz's Sriram Krishnan to Leave Firm, Discusses Role With Musk". The Information. Retrieved November 28, 2024.
  25. ^ "Who's next in line to be Chief Twit?". Fortune. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
  26. ^ Rekhi, Dia. "Indian techie Sriram Krishnan 'helping' Elon Musk with Twitter revamp". The Economic Times. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
  27. ^ Stieb, Matt (December 20, 2022). "Who Could Be the Next CEO of Twitter?". Intelligencer. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  28. ^ "Who Will be Next Twitter CEO After Elon Musk? Odds Favor Investor Sriram Krishnan". Sports Betting Dime. December 22, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  29. ^ Krishnan, Sriram (July 15, 2023). "Opinion | You're Not Imagining It: Social Media Is in Chaos". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 19, 2023.
  30. ^ Nolan, Beatrice. "Sriram Krishnan is leaving Andreessen Horowitz and is reportedly in talks to join Elon Musk at DOGE". Business Insider. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
  31. ^ a b Kay, Grace. "Kanye West and Elon Musk are slated to appear on a Clubhouse talk show hosted by a Facebook employee and her VC husband". Business Insider México | Noticias pensadas para ti (in Spanish). Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  32. ^ King, Hope (February 1, 2021). "Elon Musk admits 'talking smack' about Lidar". Medium. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  33. ^ LaPorte, Nicole (August 10, 2021). "Inside the only late-night talk show that breaks news". Fast Company. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  34. ^ a b Conger, Kate (December 21, 2021). "How the Copycats Came for Clubhouse". The New York Times.
  35. ^ "How Sriram Krishnan and Aarthi Ramamurthy Blew Up on Clubhouse". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  36. ^ "Clubhouse Surpasses 10 Million Users After Musk, Zuckerberg, Rogan, and MrBeast Join and Starts Drawing More Scrutiny". Voicebot.ai. February 23, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  37. ^ "Clubhouse witnesses two senior management exits". Moneycontrol. Retrieved June 26, 2022.
  38. ^ a b Chan, J. Clara (June 1, 2023). "'The Aarthi and Sriram Show' Nabs Podcast Deal With iHeartMedia". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
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