Housing sacks Yadav, interim CEO hunt on

He had quit as the CEO on April 30 this year, but he withdrew his resignation within a week

Housing.com finally lost patience with its co-founder & chief executive officer, Rahul Yadav. In a terse press release issued on Wednesday, the company’s board announced Yadav’s “release” with immediate effect and cited his behaviour towards investors, ecosystem and media as one not befitting a CEO.

“The board believed that his behaviour was not befitting of a CEO and detrimental to the company, known for its innovative approach to product development, market expansion and brand building,” Housing.com said. Yadav, the release added, would “no longer be an employee of Housing and be associated with the company in any manner, going forward.”

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The company added the search for an interim CEO was underway. A transition plan has been put in place; the current senior executives of Housing will continue to run the operations on a daily basis and ensure its continued smooth functioning. “The board and the operating committee will remain closely involved with all key decisions.”

True to his style, Yadav, who was trending on microblogging site Twitter since afternoon, took to Facebook to react to the decision. He said: “Board: CEO title of Housing.com. Take that away then what are you? Me: A Genius Billionaire (in INR) Philanthropist.” [sic].

Housing was set up in 2012 by 12 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay graduates. Of them, three left. The company has emerged one of the most promising start-ups in recent years, with investors, betting big on housing, pumping in over $121 million in four rounds of funding so far.

A little over 70 per cent in the company is held by venture capitalists, the chief among them being Japanese telecom giant SoftBank. Other investors include Nexus Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Falconedge, Haresh Chawla (former group chief executive officer of Network18 and Viacom18 Media), and Zishaan Hayath (co-founder of Toppr.com).

“It is a sad moment for us. Housing was Rahul’s idea, his company. But he has been ousted. I don’t know how we will deal with this loss,” said an official of Housing.com.

Yadav perhaps did not have any inkling of his ouster until Tuesday evening. In an interview with this newspaper on Tuesday, he had said: “We are looking at an organisational structure like that of Alibaba’s and I would assume a different position. My role could be of group CEO or whatever you call it,” Yadav had said.

This March, an open verbal spat had broken out between Yadav (pictured) and Sequoia Capital India chief Shailendra Singh when Yadav accused Singh of poaching staff from his company.

In fact, Yadav accused the venture capital firm of not letting him have “enough say” in the operations of the company.

Later, on April 30, he resigned from the CEO’s post after writing a scathing email to investors and questioning their intellectual capabilities, only to apologise and withdraw his resignation on May 5. A few days later, after giving away his four-odd per cent stake in Housing to his employees, Yadav took on Bhavish Aggarwal and Deepinder Goyal, founders & chief executive officer of Olacabs and Zomato, respectively, challenging them to follow suit and allot half their shares to employees. The Housing release on Wednesday also said the board, investors, management team and employees were keen to see the company maximise its huge potential in India and beyond, as well as run in a professional and world-class manner.

A HISTORY OF SPATS

• Mar 6: Yadav gets into a spat with Sequoia Capital India’s Shailendra Singh
   
• Mar 17: Times Group files defamation lawsuit against Housing.com
   
• Apr 30: Yadav resigns as Housing CEO after writing a scathing email questioning investors’ intellectual capabilities
   
• May 5: Yadav retracts resignation, apologises to the board
   
• May 13: Yadav gives away his 4% stake in the company to employees. A few days later, challenges Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal and Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal to allot half their shares to employees of their respective companies
   
• May 19: Takes the ‘Ask Me Anything’ challenge on social networking site Reditt; calls Sequoia inhuman
   
• Jun 5: Posts on his Facebook wall a picture of Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka sleeping at an airport lounge
   
• Jul 1: Board sacks Yadav