Twitter Prankster "Rahul Ligma" Reveals His AI Startup Julius, Now Used by Harvard Business School

The morning after Elon Musk's 2022 acquisition of Twitter, now known as X, reporters spotted two men carrying boxes out of the company’s headquarters. One of them, identifying himself as "Rahul Ligma," claimed to be a recently laid-off engineer. This individual, whose actual name is Rahul Sonwalkar, quickly became an internet sensation with his prank. Capitalizing on his newfound notoriety, Sonwalkar subsequently impersonated a laid-off FTX employee in the Bahamas just after the cryptocurrency exchange faced its dramatic collapse. Despite never having worked for X or FTX, Sonwalkar has genuine tech credentials. He spent several years as an engineer at Uber and even participated in Y Combinator, focusing initially on a logistics startup that he eventually shelved. Instead, he shifted his efforts to a new venture, Julius, an AI data analyst tool he founded about two years ago when he was 25. Julius stands out by making data science accessible to a broader audience. The platform can analyze and visualize large datasets and perform predictive modeling using natural language prompts. This functionality has drawn a significant user base, with over 2 million registered users to date. While other AI tools like ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini offer similar features, Professor Iavor Bojinov from Harvard Business School (HBS) found Julius particularly impressive. After conducting a head-to-head comparison with several other platforms, Bojinov decided to approach Sonwalkar with a unique request: to tailor Julius for HBS's new mandatory course, "Data Science and AI for Leaders." “Julius performed the best among the platforms we evaluated,” Bojinov told TechCrunch. The adoption of Julius by HBS, an institution that produces nearly 1,000 future business leaders each year, represents a significant milestone for the startup, which currently employs a team of 12. Sonwalkar has also secured a seed round of funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners' Talia Goldberg, according to sources familiar with the deal. However, Sonwalkar declined to provide specific details, and Bessemer did not respond to a request for comment. When asked if the "Rahul Ligma" pranks helped in building the initial momentum for Julius, Sonwalkar responded, “They were beneficial in the early stages, but their impact has waned recently.” His focus now lies squarely on advancing Julius and ensuring it continues to meet the needs of its growing user base and prestigious clients like Harvard Business School. This blend of tech savvy and unconventional marketing has put Sonwalkar and Julius in the spotlight, demonstrating that sometimes, a bit of humor can open doors in the tech world, even if the long-term success hinges on solid engineering and user-friendly design.