'I Was Young And It Was Immature Behaviour'

Rahul Yadav, who co-founded Housing.com before an unceremonious exit, discusses the takeaways and his new journey

- KathaKali Chanda

From the poster boy of young entrepreneurship to enfant terrible, the sobriquets that defined Rahul Yadav in 2015 changed dramatically over a few months. Early that year, a mail he had shot off to investor Shailendra Singh of venture capital firm Sequoia Capital— threatening to “vacate the firm” if they didn’t stop “messing around” with him—went public. “This marks the beginning of the end of Sequoia Cap in India,” wrote Yadav, who was the cofounder of Housing.com at the time. It triggered a downward spiral for the then 25-year-old, who first resigned calling his board members and investors “intellectually incapable” of having a discussion, then withdrew it before eventually being booted out. Nearly four years on, sitting across the table from me, Yadav chooses his words carefully, but minces none. Being called the “Housing.com guy” riles him because “I’m kind of done with that story now”, he says. He is now the chief technology officer with property consultants Anarock and insists that his current roles, both professional and personal, have brought him far more stability. In an exclusive interview, he tells Forbes India about his journey from a precocious IIT dropout to a tech professional. Edited excerpts:

Q What do you think went wrong between you and Housing.com?

I was way too young at that time and it was immature behaviour. I guess it was okay at that age. I was a leader in college [IIT-Bombay], and then the co-founder of Housing. com. I was always the single point of authority. Even if I was wrong, no one was questioning me. That way, leaders tend to get delusional a bit and take wrong calls with confidence.