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After much debate and discussion, the board decided that Yadav would continue at the helm of the company.
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“Both the parties met and sat across. They realised that a middle ground on the issue would be in the best interest of the company and thus it was decided that Rahul would continue as the CEO,” said an investor in the company.
In an emailed statement, Housing.com said: “Today the Housing board met, and has been reconstituted to include all main shareholder representatives. After some good conversations the board has reaffirmed its faith in Rahul Yadav’s vision at Housing.”
In a harsh tone, Yadav had handed over his resignation on April 30, questioning the intellectual capability of the board of members in his resignation letter and giving them a week’s time to complete the transition process.
After the board meeting, Yadav apologised for his comments, saying: “After some frank and healthy discussions with the board, I have agreed to withdraw my resignation and I apologise for my unacceptable comments about the board members. I look forward to staying on at Housing as CEO and building an even greater company, while working in full harmony with the board.”
Housing.com, born from the house-hunting struggles of its own founders, has since 2012 seen three founders leave. Investors being bullish on its business model have pumped in over $121 million in four rounds of funding so far. Venture capitalists now hold nearly 70 per cent in the company. Some of the investors include Nexus Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Softbank, Falconedge, former group CEO of Network18 and Viacom18 Media Haresh Chawla, and Zishaan Hayath, co-founder of Chaupaati Bazaar.
| Who is Rahul Yadav? |
| Rahul Yadav’s is a rather unusual story. The 25-year-old from Alwar, Rajasthan, wasn’t the brightest in class. He ranked 20th among 30 students in his Class 10 exams. A sarcastic comment by his uncle about his grades made him work hard and become a topper in Rajasthan in physics-chemistry-maths, based on which he got a 75 per cent scholarship to prepare for IIT-JEE. At IIT Bombay he created a question bank from old exam papers to build the popular Exambaba.com. Exambaba was made the official IIT-B archive before eventually being shut down. After a brief internship in Israel, Yadav returned to build apps for Google Chrome. And then, in his final year, dropped out of IIT. Later, he joined his friends to co-found Housing.com. |
Yadav’s resignation, said investors, was part of the process at any “large” organisation and they were optimistic about Housing’s future.
“The founders have so far done a good job and we are sure they will continue to do so. Housing has a bright future and we are confident of that,” said an investor who invested in Housing.com when the company began its journey in 2012.
This, however, is not the first time that Yadav has hit the headlines.
This March, upset over Sequoia Capital trying to poach employees at Housing.com, Yadav got into a public spat with Shailendra Singh, managing director of Sequoia Capital, saying: “Now I just came to know you personally are completely after Housing’s employees and are brainwashing them to open some stupid incubation. If you don’t stop messing around with me, directly or even indirectly, I will vacate the best of your firm.”
In reply to Yadav’s mail, Singh had said that Sequoia had made an offer to one of the Housing employees to join the company as an analyst.
Barely days after this public fight with Sequoia, Housing was slapped with a defamation lawsuit filed by the Times Group. The notice was the result of an email Yadav had sent to the company’s employees, stating the group was trying to malign Housing. MagicBricks competes with Housing.com and is owned by the Times Group. The email was a result of a report carried by a paper of the group that stated investors were looking for a new CEO for Housing.
