Be Interested, Not Interesting: A Conversation with Atul Sood

Some people build, scale, fix, and sell a company, and then go do it again in a completely different environment. Atul Sood is one of them. He was the first employee at a Google Ventures-backed startup that raised over $100 million, led business development at McDonald's on a global level, and founded and sold his own company in sales intelligence. Now he's a fractional Chief Business Officer advising multiple companies at once, across restaurants, retail, and emerging tech.

What makes the conversation worth having isn't the resume. It's that Atul is openly unpolished about the path, the failures, the recovery, the parts that don't fit the clean up-and-to-the-right story. And underneath all of it runs one throughline he'll defend to the end: relationships matter more than strategy.

Carve out the five minutes

The post that started our conversation was about being there for your friends. Atul had written it after a friend going through a divorce texted to ask if he was free to talk, and Atul called him back between meetings. The reflection that came out of it was simple: you can always carve out five minutes, if you care. Not tomorrow, not this weekend. Today, and if possible right now.

He's blunt about the trade he's made. He started his career in investment banking, and had he stayed, he'd be worth a lot more than he is. "I care more about people than money," he said. "Unfortunately, it's reflected in my bank account." But it's bought him a lot of friends, and he's clear that isn't a consolation prize. His one twist on the usual advice: don't assume your reliable people are only the ones you've known for decades. He believes in friendship at first sight. You can build someone you'd answer the phone for in a single meeting.

The white-collar gig economy

Atul lives in Silicon Valley, where he says everybody has a side hustle. Everybody. And his read is that this is where the whole white-collar world is heading. The gig economy isn't just for rideshare and delivery drivers anymore. All of us are in it.

His reasoning is unsentimental. You never know when you'll be out of a job, and employers have shown plenty of their own heartlessness even to long-tenured people. So loyalty is going to get more fickle from employees, because it's already been fickle from employers, and why wouldn't that run in reverse. His recommendation for people at every stage of a career is to have a side pursuit that could generate revenue, even if you frame it as a hobby. It's intellectually stimulating, it's fulfilling, and it's the thing you fall back on when the job disappears. He started a small forum for fractional professionals that grew fast, full of former CEOs and CMOs who want in. As for who's actually suited to fractional work, his answer is honest: you need the bruises. It tends to fit people in the middle and later stages of a career who have the breadth and the failures to bring real gravitas, and it serves earlier-stage founders best, because they get that expertise for a fraction of the cost.

What fractional actually fixes

The core thing companies hire Atul for is accelerating go-to-market. His edge is relationships. After more than a decade in the restaurant industry, he has a set of genuinely trusted connections, real friendships, that let him secure meetings with specific buyers with far less friction than a cold process ever could.

His pitch to companies is refreshingly against his own interest. Instead of hiring one SVP of sales or one chief revenue officer and living or dying by that single person's network, hire two or three fractional business people for the same money and amplify your reach into the industry. "I don't say just hire me," he said. "I say hire me and someone else." It's faster and more results-oriented than a full-time commitment, because a fractional exec is there to deliver, and everyone knows it.

Thirty minutes to know if it'll scale

I asked what he looks at, given 30 minutes with a company, to know whether it'll scale. Three things, in order.

First, the quality of the leadership team. Can they overcome challenges, articulate the value proposition clearly, and inspire enough confidence in investors to raise money, because almost every company will need to. The CEO has to project belief not just in the product but in themselves as the person worth backing. For Atul, trust in leadership ranks above the quality of the product. Second, the size of the market. Is the total addressable market meaningful enough to be worth backing, and are you building a market or just a product inside someone else's. Third, the cleanliness of the communication. Can you explain what you're solving in a way his mother or a ten-year-old would understand, because you often get 30 seconds, not 30 minutes, and people are pressed for time.

Lead with the truth, not the shine

The leadership trait Atul despises most is obfuscating the truth. He accepts that companies and people struggle, that not everything works, that everyone wants to package things a little cleaner than they are. What loses him is a leader who insists everything is perfect, all targets hit, everyone happy. "If you just fired ten people and I ask how you're doing and you say great," he said, "nobody's doing great after they fire ten people." He sees through it fast, and he won't work with you.

The flip side is what makes him go all in: leaders who lead with vulnerability, who will admit the struggles they're having. He described a prospective client meeting he opened with "being a CEO stinks, I never want to be one again," and the CEO agreeing that yes, it does stink, but he believes in the company and it's the right seat for him right now. That honesty was the sell. He's careful to separate this from confidence. Projecting confidence when you feel insecure is understandable and necessary, because nobody invests in or buys from a leader who seems weak. The distinction is that you can be genuinely ambitious and confident and still name the challenges you have to overcome. Both are true at once, and stating both in plain English is strength, not weakness.

Does empathy die as you climb?

I put a suspicion to him: that as people climb the enterprise ladder, their empathy dies. Atul's answer was nuanced. In large companies, empathy does often wear away, because it's easy to distance yourself as a leader from the impact your decisions have on the people below you. But he doesn't think ambition and empathy are actually at odds.

He knows the weight of it firsthand. Around 30, in his first leadership role, he took over a 150-person company and had to release about 80 people in the first month. It was the first time he'd ever fired anyone, let alone dozens at once, and sitting across from people one-on-one for two days straight was miserable. He did it as empathetically as he knew how, and he told them the truth. Empathy, he said, is the single most critical asset for a leader. It's why he has a hard rule: he will not work for a leader who puts their own self-interest above their team's, even at $20,000 a month. Other people call it the no-assholes rule. He calls it working with people he loves.

What founders consistently overestimate

The thing founders overestimate, Atul thinks, is the likelihood of their own success. And he's oddly forgiving about it, because you have to be a little crazy, right on the edge of reasonability, to found a company at all. You're everything from janitor to CEO, you're asking people you care about to put their money behind you, and that requires an expectation of success that the odds don't support. More founders fail than succeed. But in the end he calls that self-belief a strength, not a flaw.

He did offer one contrarian note for investors. Capital flocks to founders with big exits, and if you've raised $100 million and sold for billions, you can raise the next few hundred million almost on reputation alone, even though the odds you repeat it are slim. Atul would rather bet on the founder who has failed five times. It cuts against conventional wisdom, and he knows it.

Relationships are a currency you can't measure

When I noted that relationships are the theme of everything he does, Atul reached for a quote from "the great philosopher Winnie the Pooh": we'll be friends for life, just you wait and see. He goes into every relationship with that attitude, and says it usually turns out to be true. You might not talk every day or even know what job the other person has in three years, but if they call and need five minutes, he answers.

He hates the word networking and prefers building community. It's not about how many people you know, he said, it's about the intent with which you know them: to serve yourself, or to serve them. Depth of care beats depth of knowledge, and you can demonstrate real care in five minutes. The proof is his own lowest point. At 38, going through a divorce, effectively shutting down his company, and newly diagnosed as bipolar (something he's openly candid about and thinks people should discuss more), he called a friend from his Princeton days for introductions in the Bay Area. That friend connected him to someone Atul had built a relationship with over years and had never asked for anything. That person introduced him to a friend at McDonald's. The job that came out of it changed the entire trajectory of his career, and when he built the original relationship, he had no idea it would ever pay off. There was no self-interest in it. That, he says, is the whole point. Everybody knows someone. Treat everybody with dignity, care, and kindness, and it will serve you.

Trust your community

I asked how you decide what to bet on when you don't have enough data, which is most of the time. Trust your community, he said. Build relationships with people smarter than you, make those relationships trustworthy, and then ask them and actually listen. Your sister, your college roommate, a former boss and mentor.

And for the person whose community believes in them more than they believe in themselves? He's been there, taking a CEO job he didn't feel ready for because his community bolstered him. His advice cuts both ways. Therapy helps build the self-confidence. And sometimes you have to step on the pedal in a moment of discomfort, knowing there are people who will catch you if you fall. So if you're the one encouraging someone, offer your help in case it all goes to hell. And if you're the one taking the leap, ask for that help when you need it. Speak up.

Key takeaways

A few things worth holding onto.

Relationship first, deal second. Put the friendship ahead of the investment, the sale, the target, and it compounds across a career even when it doesn't pay off this quarter.

Have a side pursuit. In a world where employer loyalty is fickle, a revenue-capable side project is both stimulation and insurance. Everyone should have one.

Read leadership before product. Given 30 minutes, trust in the team, the size of the market, and a value prop a ten-year-old can grasp tell you more than the demo.

Lead with the truth. Owning your weak points builds more trust than insisting everything's perfect. Confidence that names its challenges beats confidence that hides them.

Be interested, not interesting. The intent with which you know people, to serve them, not yourself, is the whole game.

Frameworks worth stealing

Carve out the five minutes

When someone you care about needs to talk, the answer is today, ideally right now. You can always find five minutes if you actually care. And widen who counts: your most reliable people don't have to be the ones you've known longest. You can build a friendship worth answering the phone for in a single meeting.

The 30-minute scale check

To judge whether a company will scale, look at three things in order. The leadership team, and whether they can overcome challenges, articulate the value, and earn investor trust, because that trust matters more than the product itself. The size of the market. And whether they can explain what they do so a ten-year-old understands it, because you usually get 30 seconds, not 30 minutes.

Lead with the truth

Package things a little cleaner than they are if you must, but own your failures and weak points out loud. Nobody's doing great after firing ten people, and pretending otherwise is what loses trust. The most compelling leaders lead with vulnerability, and the strongest confidence is the kind that names its own challenges.

Community over networking

Stop counting how many people you know and start examining the intent with which you know them: to serve yourself, or to serve them. Depth of care beats depth of knowledge, and you can show real care in five minutes. Put the relationship ahead of the transaction, and over a career it outperforms every short-term deal.

Quotes worth keeping

The lines I wrote down.

You can always carve out five minutes, if you care.

I care more about people than money. Unfortunately, it's reflected in my bank account.

I hate the word networking. I like the words building community.

It's not about how many people you know. It's about the intent with which you know them.

And the one, by way of Winnie the Pooh, that he lives by.

We'll be friends for life, just you wait and see.

Rapid fire round

Same questions every guest. No prep, no warning. Here's how Atul handled it.

Best advice you've ever received? Be interested, not interesting. It came from his mentor Kemp Battle at the close of a leadership program on moral courage. His charge to the room: when you go home full of everything you just learned, remember to be interested in the person who was holding things together while you were away.

Advice you wish you'd listened to? On a personal note, not to get married when he did. He got that advice at the time.

What would you tell your younger self? Believe in yourself more. Everything will be okay. It'll all work out. You'll make the money, and you'll have the relationships.

Ongoing challenge that keeps you up at night? Honestly, he sleeps great. He's up around 3:45 and naps during the day. The thing actually on his mind isn't rest, it's wanting to be genuinely worthy of his clients' trust, not just successful for them.

Favorite meal or spot? Cheese fondue. He's had it for his birthday every year since he was 12, and the best was outdoors in the Swiss winter air.

Tool you can't live without? Text messaging, which he lives on. And WhatsApp, which he uses to call his mother every single morning.

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Atul Sood is a fractional Chief Business Officer who builds growth through partnerships, from first employee at a Google Ventures-backed startup that raised over $100 million, to global business development at McDonald's, to founding and selling his own company. Find him on LinkedIn.