It’s 11:56 on a Thursday night. It has been an eventful few days for Rahul Yadav. He has resigned as the CEO of Housing.com with a dramatic letter. He has questioned the intellectual capabilities of his investors. He has apologized for questioning the intellectual capabilities of his investors. He’s trended on twitter. He’s uploaded a half naked picture of himself showing a disdainful middle finger to the world. He’s given away his 200 crore fortune in a move that made the Indian startup industry draw its collective breath. And then, on Thursday night, he posted this on his Facebook wall.
All his previous actions seemed to show a contempt for the conventional, and a burning desire to succeed. Yadav was a man in a hurry. Life is too short to waste my time with incompetent people, his resignation letter had said. He had no time for civilities, and little time for pretense. He seemed focussed, blinkered even, on his suitably grandiose mission of changing the way the world finds places to live.
This latest act flies in the face of all that. The language is unnecessarily acerbic, the tone unnecessarily confrontational. The “challenge” is thrown at two CEOs who head companies which do not compete with Housing in any way. The CEOs chosen are both public figures themselves, and are carefully tagged on Facebook. The self congratulation (“noble act”) is also hard to miss. This ice bucket-esque stunt is tailor-made to get a reaction.
Rahul is no longer batting for Housing. From being someone who’d do anything for this vision, from locking horns with rigid investors to making big bets, he’s suddenly positioned himself as a champion of the masses, a hermit CEO willing to dole out his wealth his to employees. His mantra no longer seems to to be to find houses for people – it’s become to find newer ways to stay in the news.
This update has nothing to do with Housing. It has everything to do with Rahul Yadav. And it is hard to tell what Rahul Yadav cares about more at this point.