What started as a viral internet prank has quietly turned into a serious AI success story. Rahul Sonwalkar, the man behind the infamous “Rahul Ligma” gag outside Twitter HQ in 2022, is now drawing attention for a much more serious reason: he’s the founder of Julius AI, an AI-powered data analyst startup that has quietly gained significant traction — including adoption by Harvard Business School (HBS).
Although he never actually worked at Twitter (now X), Sonwalkar is no stranger to the tech world. Before his viral moment, he was a software engineer at Uber, and a Y Combinator alum working on a logistics startup before pivoting to Julius. Now 27, Sonwalkar is focused on democratizing data science.
“I wanted to build something that would make data science very accessible to everyone,” he said
Julius AI: Natural Language Meets Predictive Modeling
Julius AI allows users to analyze, visualize, and model complex datasets using natural language prompts—without needing a background in programming or statistics. Since its quiet launch about two years ago, the tool has amassed over 2 million registered users, thanks to its ability to simplify workflows that typically require SQL, Python, or R.
While some features overlap with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, Julius has proven to be especially effective in structured data analysis and visualization, which caught the attention of Harvard Business School assistant professor Iavor Bojinov.
“We had done a head-to-head comparison across a number of platforms, including ChatGPT, and Julius ended up performing the best,” said Bojinov.
So impressed was the HBS faculty that Julius was customized for use in the school’s new mandatory course: Data Science and AI for Leaders, aimed at training 1,000 future business leaders annually. The integration into a high-profile academic curriculum is a major validation for the startup, which currently operates with a lean 12-person team.
Backed by Bessemer, Built for Everyone
Julius has also attracted venture capital. According to sources familiar with the deal, Bessemer Venture Partners led the company’s seed round, with Talia Goldberg involved in the investment. Sonwalkar declined to share specifics, and Bessemer did not respond to a request for comment.
With increasing demand from both individual professionals and enterprise users, Julius is carving out a niche in a competitive market filled with LLM-powered assistants. But its focus on structured data workflows — and performance inside educational settings — has given it a unique edge.
Did Sonwalkar’s viral “Ligma” stunt help open doors when Julius was just getting started?
“A little bit in the early days, but to be honest, not as much recently,” he admitted.
Now, Sonwalkar is more focused on scaling Julius beyond its early hype, turning his once-viral persona into something far more impactful: a founder building one of the most accessible AI data tools in the space.
