Housing after Rahul Yadav: time to make some money

Housing CEO Jason Kothari.

It can’t be easy for Jason Kothari.

If you’re not sure who that is, you’re probably not alone.

Jason is the chief executive officer for Housing.com, the man who has taken up the responsibility to grow a company that has been beleaguered with bad press, heavy restructuring, and for the most part, is still infamous for its volatile founder and former CEO, Rahul Yadav.

As if all of that isn’t enough, Housing is now reportedly in talks for a stake sale, while trying to figure out how to keep the company relevant.

That’s a hard job for any CEO, but Jason is not fazed.

For starters, he categorically denies that the company, which he has been leading for about two months now, is in talks for any kind of sale at all.

“These reports are false and, in fact, are in some ways the opposite of the actual facts. For example, we are considering companies to buy, not selling our company,” Jason told Tech In Asia.

A graduate from the Wharton Business School, Jason was co-founder and CEO of Valiant Entertainment before he joined Housing as its chief business officer in August. That’s right after Rahul Yadav was fired. Three months into the new gig, Jason was made CEO.

His plans for Housing seem simple: build a mature, focused company that makes money.

“The company started with a young, innovative management team that was a great fit for the earlier product-technology focused stage of the company’s lifecycle. While we maintain our focus on product-technology, we are adding monetization as a core focus as well,” Jason wrote in an email.

India’s real estate boom has now cooled off a bit. Photo credit: Innacoz.

That, however, is easier said than done. Housing posted a loss of about US$42 million in the fiscal 2015, as per official documents. In comparison, its rival CommonFloor, now a part of Quikr, posted a loss of about US$12 million.