“Smart people are not going to listen to you just because you told them to.”
Solo Talk is back. The first episode was an experiment. You loved it, so Julian went back into the archive and pulled out more clips worth a second look.
That line above comes from Rahul Sonwalkar, the founder of Julius AI, and it’s where Julian starts.
There’s a misconception that going solo means you don’t have to listen to anyone. You control the company, so people just do what you say.
Rahul’s point is that it doesn’t work that way. Smart people have to be convinced. The best work comes from people who think, “Hell yeah, this should exist,” not, “The founder told me to do it.”
And that applies far beyond employees. As a founder, you’re constantly asking people to take a bet on you—investors, partners, customers, etc.
Julian builds on Rahul’s point by asking what makes a founder convincing in the first place.
His answer is an original insight. The strongest founders have a real connection to the problem they’re solving and understand something about it that others do not. That depth is hard to copy, and people can feel the difference.
Watch Julian react to the other clips:
Solo, together.
Kieran
