Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu tried to hire Donald Trump's AI advisor Sriram Krishnan: 'Wanted to recruit him in...'

Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu recently shared an interesting story about Indian-American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan, who has been appointed as Senior White House Policy Adviser on Artificial Intelligence under US President-elect Donald Trump.

Vembu revealed on X (formerly Twitter) that he first came across Krishnan in 2004 through his programming blog while he was a student at SRM University. Impressed by the blog, Vembu wanted to recruit Krishnan for Zoho, only to discover that Microsoft had already hired him.

Congratulations Sriram!

Back in 2004, when Sriram was graduating from SRM University, I came across his blog - one of the early programming blogs from India at that time. I was so impressed I wanted to recruit him but Microsoft already had recruited him. We have been in touch… https://t.co/t3R7OgO0iz

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) December 23, 2024

The two remained in touch as Krishnan moved to Silicon Valley and built an impressive career in technology and entrepreneurship. Congratulating him on his new role, Vembu wrote, “President Trump has found a great talent for his technology team!”

Responding to the post, Krishnan thanked Vembu for being an inspiration to him and his wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy, for over 20 years.

Announced officially on Sunday, Krishnan’s new role will involve working with venture capitalist David Sacks to shape AI policies and strengthen the US’s global leadership in artificial intelligence.

Krishnan, who has previously worked at Yahoo!, Meta, Twitter/X, and Microsoft, is known for his expertise in technology and policy. He also co-hosts a podcast, The Aarthi and Sriram Show, with his wife, where they discuss topics like US politics and AI regulation.