Rahul Yadav might’ve been fired from Housing a long time ago, but the swagger that had made him a media star refuses to go away.
Housing.com merged with PropTiger in a deal that was concluded last week. And while both Housing and PropTiger executives were upbeat about the combined entity’s prospects, the former CEO isn’t impressed.
Rahul Yadav seems to think that with the merger, Housing has “shut down”. And it’s taken $80 million to do so, more money than it had needed to build the company in the first place.
Rahul’s schadenfreude is understandable – while his reign at Housing was fraught with drama, usually of his own making, the company had no observable signs of being in trouble. Housing’s downfall, at least in the public eye began after Yadav had left – months after his departure, Housing fired over 800 people, and controversially shut down the rentals business which it was best known for.
But it’s possible that Housing’s eventual troubles began thanks to the policies he’d instituted. Under his leadership, Housing had embarked on a ambitious multimillion dollar advertising campaign which saw the company’s billboards being plastered all over the top cities in India. They company had also been profligate with its spending, paying nearly Rs. 6 crore for the Housing.com domain and a vanity phone number.
Rahul’s own career post Housing has been tepid. He’d launched Intelligent Interfaces with much fanfare, claiming it would be “10x bigger” than any other Indian internet company, and raising money from prominent figures such as Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal and Vijay Shekhar Sharma. The company failed to create a dent and was shut in months, amidst accusations that Yadav had blown most of the initial funding while traveling in the US for initial research.
No one has come out looking good after the whole Housing saga which had so gripped the nation in 2015. Yadav, who was once thought to be a future star entrepreneur, now has two failed startups under his belt; Housing, which was thought to have potential to become the first truly global company out of India, is now regelated to being a minor player in a combined entity. It’s been a sobering couple of years for both Housing and Yadav – where they go from here will be a true testament to their resilience and character.