Housing co-founder and CEO Yadav bad-mouths his investors and quits. What’s really behind his resignation?

I don’t think you guys are intellectually capable enough to have any sensible discussion anymore.

Rahul Yadav, co-founder and CEO of one of India’s hottest startups, Housing.com, wrote that in his resignation letter to investors and board members.

This is one of the three Indian stars in the portfolio of Japan’s SoftBank, whose founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, came to India last year and vowed to invest US$10 billion in this market. Snapdeal, Ola, and Housing were the first to get big bucks from Japan’s richest man.

Now, one of those stars is sending out strange signals. Its CEO didn’t just quit – he has made a public spectacle of the event. “I had calculated long back (by taking avg life expectancy minus avg sleeping hrs) that I only have ~3L (hours) in my life. ~3L hrs are certainly not much to waste with you guys!” says Yadav in his letter to the board, ET published today..

SoftBank’s vice-chairman, Nikesh Arora, had already resigned from the board, following earlier public altercations between Yadav and Sequoia, a VC who wasn’t even an investor in Housing.

The immediate questions that arise from this are: What’s the real reason behind this acrimony? Is it personal or a tussle for control between investors and founders?

Pandora’s box

Early last month, Yadav had given a jolt to the startup community in India, especially VCs when he sent an explosive email to Shailendra J Singh, managing director of Sequoia Capital in India. It accused Sequoia Capital of “inhuman and unethical things,” threatened retaliation in kind, and ended on an ominous note. ”I just came to know you personally are completely after Housing’s employees and are brainwashing them to open some stupid incubation. If you don’t stop messing around with me, directly or even indirectly, I will vacate the best of your firm. Try me,” it said. A copy of the mail was sent to all Housing employees, and someone, somewhere leaked it on question-and-answer website Quora.

This had nothing to do with a VC-entrepreneur disagreement as Sequoia isn’t one of Housing’s investors.

Shailendra Singh replied to Yadav’s email hinting that the young CEO was being “vindictive and petty.” In a nutshell, his message to Yadav was “Grow up!” Yadav countered with, “You clearly know what shit you’ve done with multiple entrepreneurs and startups in India with your cheap and dirty tactics.” He went on to say, “And unlike being fake like you, I’ll be true here – I do not wish good for you or your firm until [sic] you’re at the helm.” Sequoia Capital choose not to respond to this.

The long string of fireworks that Yadav lit threw open the other side of the Indian startup world. Until then, much of the media buzz around startups has been of the cheerleading variety. Entrepreneurs are praised to the skies for their ideas, investors lauded as visionaries, and media outlets race to champion causes for startups.

Yadav may just have opened Pandora’s box.