Rahul SonWalkar, an ex-software engineer at Meta and Uber, has scaled his tech startup, Julius AI, from 0 to 1 million users within the first year. His work has been so impactful that Harvard Business School now teaches analysis to their MBA students using Julius—an incredible achievement for a company that started from scratch.It’s impressive to see what he’s built in such a short time, especially considering that, at just 24 years old, Rahul walked away from a high-paying job in big tech with great career outlook to pursue his own vision.

If you’re thinking about starting your own business, trying to figure out which idea to put your efforts behind, this episode is a must-listen.

We discussed the complexities and uncertainties of leaving a stable job to pursue personal ideas and the process of validating those ideas. Rahul shared insights on building a user-focused product, scaling the business, and finding the right team members. More importantly, we touched on the challenges and sacrifices of being a founder, including maintaining personal relationships and managing work-life balance.

00:00 Introduction

01:23 The Leap from Corporate to Startup

04:18 Challenges and Realizations in the Early Days

11:35 Building and Scaling Julius AI

24:38 The Future of Julius AI and Data Science

31:56 Reflections and Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

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