Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath recently sat down with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan on the latest episode of his podcast, People by WTF. Their conversation spanned a variety of subjects, including how social media influences political discourse and strategies for navigating YouTube’s algorithm effectively. During the episode, an interesting detail came to light: back in 2011, Google reportedly extended a staggering $100 million stock offer to Mohan in a bid to keep him from leaving for Twitter (now rebranded as X). At the time, Twitter was actively seeking experienced leadership to head its product division and had approached Mohan for the Chief Product Officer position.
As reported by TechCrunch in 2011, Google’s counteroffer came in the form of restricted stock units, designed to vest gradually over a number of years. This move was part of Google’s determined effort to prevent Neal Mohan from accepting a position at Twitter. At the time, David Rosenblatt—Mohan’s former supervisor—had taken a seat on Twitter’s board and was eager to bring him on board as the company’s Chief Product Officer.
During the podcast, Kamath mentioned, “I remember reading this thing about Google offering you $100 million not to quit. Not today, but 15 years ago, which was a lot of money.” Mohan did not deny the claim.
In addition to discussing weightier subjects, Mohan reminisced about his time growing up in Lucknow, his early experiences in the United States, and the ways in which living in America influenced the development of his passions and curiosity.
During the podcast, Mohan recounted his early life, sharing that he was born in India while his father was enrolled at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). Not long after, his family relocated to the United States as his father pursued a doctoral degree. “I was born while my parents were still in grad school,” he mentioned, noting that the majority of his formative years were spent in America.
In 1986, the family made the decision to return to India. Mohan enrolled at St. Francis’ College in Lucknow, where he studied for five years. Afterward, he went back to the United States to study electrical engineering at Stanford University.
Reflecting on his return to India in the seventh grade, Mohan admitted it was a tough transition. One of the biggest hurdles was his limited command of Hindi, which made adapting to his new environment particularly difficult.
“When growing up in the US, I loved baseball, I loved, you know, Transformers, etc, etc. And then coming here, where you know, I sounded funny. I didn’t have, sort of like, those immediate things to connect with people on,” he revealed.
Mohan said he was always interested in technology, even as a teenager. “My background is I am a technologist by training. I’ve been interested in – let’s say, passionate about – technology since I was a really young kid,” he told Mr Kamath.
“I went to high school in Lucknow. I had a little software startup back in the day, building software for other high school kids and teachers, and so I’ve always had a deep and abiding interest in technology,” he shared.