Meet the real Rahul Yadav: I found him ‘rocking it’ in his Mumbai office

Housing CEO and co-founder Rahul Yadav has become a celebrity of sorts in India’s startup community, both reviled and admired following a series of controversies. But what is the man really like in person? I had a chance to find out when I interviewed the Housing CEO in his Mumbai office.

When I met Rahul Yadav in early March, he seemed nervous. This was his first face-to-face media interaction. Until now, Yadav’s co-founder Advitiya Sharma handled all media interactions. But he has been media shy ever since he survived a horrific accident.

Yadav appears casual in his navy blue T-shirt and beige cargos but his office doesn’t look like a “startup office.” It is done up in a sleek white with tinges of bright color in the form of red chairs and green furniture.

He pushes all his employees out of his cabin as soon as I enter to greet in the most soft spoken tone. In true Housing style, he picked up his marker to explain the smallest of details and fumbled to find alternative words to IIT Bombay lingo macha rahe hai (meaning “rocking it” in “cool” Hindi).

He started off speaking elaborately on the gap in the market and how his company’s in-house “Data Science Lab” approach could become a key differentiator while going global. “Players worldwide think that real estate is a local problem and so they haven’t launched overseas operations. We want to change that perception,” said Yadav. “We have set up a dedicated Data Science Lab which sieves through mountains of data to develop indices and metrics that help identify consumer needs. Nobody else has verified photographs of houses on their platform,” he said.

“With tools like heat maps, lifestyle rating, locality insights, child friendliness index, demand-supply tool, and so on, we have made the search for homes more fun than a burden,” he explained. “Families can sit together and discuss while taking a peek at the internal and external amenities of a home with a few clicks.”

Housing launched 3D rendering of new properties that allows users to visualize their future homes. Another step to complete the loop was a housing loans service. “We’ve got more than just good initial response on these,” Yadav said, adding that he would make sure to engage all leading players in these spaces.

Yadav refused to speak about the next country they plan to focus on. He only said: “We are working on setting up operations in one more country.”

“So you are hiring Gaurav Sharma (director of Yahoo Inc) to work from the US for Housing. Does that have anything to do with your plans of going global?” I asked. He said, “We’ve appointed Ajay Nair, a seasoned HR professional who is still talking to Sharma who has just had a baby.” It’s not clear if Housing has already appointed Sharma.

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Some of its high profile hires include Groupon Thailand founder Trip Wagoner and Crescat president Azeem Zainulbhai. But Yadav refused to list the top five executives who drive Housing. He is extremely sensitive towards his people. “What if the sixth best feels bad?” he said candidly.

This was a day before Housing unveiled its new logo – an arrowhead pointed upward. “It’s a symbol of optimism,” he said. “The sharp outer edges direct towards the future. We are aggressive on growth and aim to be 10 times better in terms of customer experience. However, the curvy edges show that we are soft from the inside.”