“There are no rules!” Housing CEO Rahul Yadav answers burning questions on Reddit

Everybody knows Rahul Yadav by now. The Housing co-founder has quickly become a celeb Indian entrepreneur – he certainly seems to be the most fearless one. That is, if you count speaking your mind – be it to powerful investors or others in the startup ecosystem – as a sign of courage.

Yadav became the first Indian CEO to take on a powerful VC – Sequoia Capital – publicly this March. He emailed Shailendra J Singh, managing director of Sequoia Capital in India, accusing his firm of “inhuman and unethical things.” He didn’t specify what was the cause of his ire but threatened to retaliate in kind.

Note: Sequoia Capital is not an investor in Housing.

The next on Yadav’s line of fire were Housing’s own investors and board members. He sent an explosive resignation email to them, saying: “I don’t think you guys are intellectually capable enough to have any sensible discussion anymore.” Housing is one of the best funded startups in India, having raised US$130 million from SoftBank Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and Helion Venture Partners.

Yadav withdrew his resignation the same evening, but courted another controversy when he announced that he will give away all his shares to the employees at Housing.

Today, the 26-year-old CEO was on Reddit for over an hour, answering questions from Redditors on his irreverent tone and choice of words to his company’s strategy and more.

Here are some of the best bits from Yadav’s AMA (Ask Me Anything):

Sour lemons with Sequoia

Q: What was the deal with Sequoia Capital? Can you tell us what were the “other bad things” you referred to in your email to the VC?

Yadav: We decided a slided deal between 10-15 performance (depending on performance) for US$ 1 million. After two months of due diligence, when they realized we were running out of money, they said they want to do a flat equity deal. I said, “Okay. Let’s do it at 12.5 percent.” They said 14.75 percent. When I requested again, they said, “Let’s not waste each others’ time.” We were left with no option.

I came to know they have done it with lots of other ventures (TaxiForSure, Ola, Dexetra, LetsBuy…)

So to cut it short, I think they’re culturally a very cutthroat VC and sometimes I think that’s why they’re more successful than others. But I still condemn their practises because I feel they’re inhuman and for me, people are the ‘why’ for everything I do.

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