What if TED started with a question instead of an answer?
How Perplexity could own the questioning space while competitors fight over answers.
I've sat through enough conference keynotes to know the pattern: dimmed lights, dramatic music, a CEO in 'casual business' attire announcing that everything is about to change (again). But what if the most disruptive conference wasn't about having all the answers, but about asking better questions?
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. We're drowning in answers. AI can generate a response to almost anything these days. But truly transformative questions? Those are still rare and precious.
Which brings me to Perplexity. If any company should be hosting a conference right now, it's them. Not because they need another marketing channel (though they do), but because they have the opportunity to completely redefine what gathering around ideas even means.
Why Perplexity is uniquely positioned to reinvent the conference
TED talks have become the corporate equivalent of inspirational Instagram quotes—beautifully packaged, widely shared, and increasingly empty. Perplexity’s UI may look like a search engine, but philosophically it’s something weirder and more interesting—a starting point for inquiry.
In the age of AI, we don't need more 'ideas worth spreading.' We need questions worth exploring.
Let's be honest: most tech conferences have become exercises in carefully crafted corporate storytelling. The "big reveals" were decided months ago. The narratives are polished to a reflective sheen. They're impressive, sure, but they're not alive.
Perplexity has built its entire brand around curiosity, literally powering journeys through information rather than just delivering static results. While Google and OpenAI compete to have the most authoritative answers, Perplexity is playing a fundamentally different game enabling better exploration.
The strategy works as a category claim. While everyone else optimizes for answers, Perplexity can own the space of optimizing for questions.
Two ways this conference would be fundamentally different
1. Format: Exploration over expertise
Imagine this: No speaker arrives with a fully-baked TED talk. Instead, they bring their most fascinating unsolved question. Their time on stage isn't spent delivering conclusions but inviting the audience into their thinking process.
What if Yuval Harari didn't tell us what humanity's future will be, but rather invited us into the questions keeping him up at night? What if climate scientists didn't just present models but walked us through the questions they're still struggling to formulate?
Each talk could be structured as an expedition rather than a lecture. "Here's what I know, here's what I don't, and here's why this question matters." Speakers would be selected not for having impressive credentials but for pursuing genuinely interesting questions.
2. Experience: Multisensory, participatory, weird
Let's ditch the standard conference setup altogether. Instead of rows of seats facing a stage, what about curiosity labs where small groups gather around problems? What if we built physical question mazes where the path you take depends on what you're wondering about?
We could have improv thinkers demonstrating how to ask better follow-ups. Role-playing exercises where people have to approach problems from drastically different perspectives.
The point is to create an environment where questioning feels physically different from passive consumption. It should be active, sometimes uncomfortable, occasionally disorienting…just like genuine curiosity.
The business case beyond the buzz
For Perplexity, the philosophy of questioning translates directly to practical growth metrics. Imagine what happens to user retention when your brand doesn't just power searches but becomes synonymous with better questioning itself. Imagine what happens to acquisition costs when every exploration generates shareable, searchable content.
Top-of-funnel growth: When every other company is fighting for coverage of their answers, Perplexity would own the conversation about questions. The earned media alone would be substantial, especially given how hungry publications are for fresh approaches to technology rather than incremental updates. Partners like The Atlantic, Wired, or Freakonomics would be natural fits for co-creating content.
Creator and educator adoption: When was the last time you saw YouTubers, professors, and newsletter writers all excited about the same thing? By centering on questions rather than answers, Perplexity would position itself as the ally of professional explainers—the exact people who drive platform adoption at scale. These are multipliers who bring entire audiences with them. Unlike Silicon Valley insiders, these creators are starved for tech partners who understand their actual work: not delivering conclusions, but guiding exploration.
Evergreen content engine: Every exploration becomes content that lives forever in Perplexity's ecosystem. Unlike most conference content that dates quickly, questions often remain relevant for years. This creates a perpetual SEO and engagement advantage.
Deeper retention and LTV: When people physically gather around the practice of questioning, something shifts in how they see themselves: they start identifying as "curious people" who value exploration over quick answers. This identity-level connection creates emotional stickiness that survives competitor feature launches and price wars. Users with this relationship to Perplexity tend to stick around longer, pay more willingly, forgive occasional product hiccups, and evangelize spontaneously. No growth hack or loyalty program can match the retention power of people who see your brand as an extension of their best selves.
Browser launchpad: Plus, if they’re looking for a launch moment for Comet (their new browser) this is it. The conference gives them a high-signal environment to debut it in front of the exact users who will evangelize it: researchers, creators, educators, and lifelong learners. People who live in tabs, chase questions, and shape how others explore the internet.
The ROI math: What could this actually be worth?
Let's run some back-of-the-napkin math to see how this translates to business outcomes.
The Investment:
For a 2-day event with 300-500 attendees in a major city:
Venue and production: $250-350K
Speaker fees and travel: $100-150K
Experience design and unique format elements: $150-200K
Marketing and promotion: $100-150K
Staff and operations: $100-150K
Total estimated cost: $700K-$1M
The Return (Three Scenarios):
Conservative Case:
5M social impressions and 10 earned media placements
25K new trial users (at $40 CAC = $1M value)
5% increase in retention for users exposed to content (value: ~$500K)
Content reuse driving 1M additional search sessions
ROI: 1.5x investment
Average Case:
15M social impressions and 25 earned media placements
50K new trial users (at $40 CAC = $2M value)
10% increase in retention for users exposed to content (value: ~$1M)
Content reuse driving 3M additional search sessions
Partnership opportunities worth $500K
ROI: 3.5x investment
Ambitious Case:
30M+ social impressions and 50+ earned media placements including tier 1
100K new trial users (at $40 CAC = $4M value)
15% increase in retention for users exposed to content (value: ~$1.5M)
Content reuse driving 8M additional search sessions
Partnership and sponsorship opportunities worth $1M
Category definition worth ~$10M in brand equity
ROI: 15x+ investment
Even in the conservative case, the direct returns justify the investment. But the real value is in the compound effect: each year builds on the last, strengthening Perplexity's ownership of the questioning space.
The bigger play
TED spread ideas. But we're drowning in ideas. What we need now are better questions and better ways to explore them.
When everyone else is scaling answers, the real opportunity is scaling curiosity.
In an age when machines can tell us what to think, the true differentiator becomes who can teach us how to question. This represents the white space in the market that Perplexity is uniquely positioned to own.
The companies that defined the last era of tech made information accessible. The companies that will define the next era will make exploration meaningful.
Perplexity can be that company. All they need to do is ask the right questions.