The recent thespian episode of the resignation withdrawal of Housing CEO Rahul Yadav and his subsequent wing-clipping by the company’s investors may have raised doubts in foreign investors who are looking to add funds to Indian start-ups. Yadav’s reckless actions have been under the radar since quite some time since his spat with Shailendra Singh, head of VC firm Sequoia Capital in India.
In an email to Singh, Yadav accused him of unethically poaching Housing’s employees and warned him to “stop messing around with me”. He then tussled with the influential media firm, the Times of India Group by sending them an internal mail that accused them of targeting him to jack up the valuation of their own real estate portal, Magicbricks.com, one of the major competitors of Housing. The Times of India Group announced that it would sue Housing.com for $16 million in damages. Due to such publicized incidents, noted investors who are scouting for future start-ups have started believing that upcoming young guns lack maturity and experience to run large companies.
The email Rahul Yadav sent to Shailendra Singh that later became public on Quora.
Housing.com was criticized earlier also in regard to its costly advertisements that were termed ‘wasteful’ and ‘failed branding’. Such events have not just affected the Housing portal but other start-ups in line who are looking at investors for funding rounds.
