Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu lost chance to hire Donald Trump’s AI advisor Sriram Krishnan: ‘I wanted to recruit him but…’ | – Times of India

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu revealed how he missed the opportunity to recruit Sriram Krishnan, who was recently appointed as senior policy advisor for artificial intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy by incoming US President Donald Trump.
Vembu shared on X that he discovered Krishnan’s programming blog in 2004 when the latter was graduating from SRM University. The blog, one of India’s earliest programming blogs at the time, impressed Vembu so much that he wanted to hire Krishnan. However, Microsoft had already secured the promising talent.

“I was so impressed I wanted to recruit him but Microsoft already had recruited him,” Vembu wrote, congratulating Krishnan on his White House appointment. The tech veterans have maintained contact over the years as Krishnan built his career in Silicon Valley.
“President Trump has found a great talent for his technology team!,” Vembu added further.
Krishnan, who will work alongside crypto and AI ‘czar’ David Sacks, brings extensive experience from his roles at major tech companies including Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook (now Meta), and Snap. He started his career at Microsoft in 2005, being one of the founding members of company’s cloud product, Azure. Most recently, he served as a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz‘s London office until November.

Responding to Vembu’s post, Krishnan wrote, “You’ve been an inspiration to @aarthir and me (and countless others) for over 20 years.”
The Chennai-born technologist, who maintains close ties with Elon Musk, has previously advocated for technical solutions to address challenges between AI models and content-rich websites.

Krishnan will “help shape and coordinate AI policy across government, working with the president’s council of advisors on science and technology.” Trump said in a post on X.
“I’m honored to be able to serve our country and ensure continued American leadership in AI,” Krishnan wrote on X, confirming his acceptance of the role. “Thank you, Donald Trump, for this opportunity.”