A day after announcing that he was transferring all his shares, worth ₹200 crore, to the company’s employees, Rahul Yadav, co-founder and CEO of Housing.com, publicly challenged Olacabs founder Bhavish Aggarwal and Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal to follow suit.

In a public post on social networking site Facebook, Yadav wrote: “Now I challenge Deepinder Goyal of Zomato and Bhavish Aggarwal of Olacabs to continue this noble act and give away half (not full) of their shares to their employees. And I hope both of them spread the nominations further.”

Within minutes both Goyal and Aggarwal put out tongue-in-cheek responses on Yadav’s Facebook page. While Goyal simply said, “Aww, so cute”, Aggarwal wrote: “Give that man a cookie.”

Yadav’s challenge is being seen as a response to Goyal’s comments on Twitter after the Housing CEO sent his resignation letter last week.

Goyal had then said: “Housing is what happens when investors leave founders with little skin in the game. Especially 20-year-old founders with nothing to lose.”

Experts and analysts said Yadav’s actions could damage Housing.com’s image. Brand consultant Harish Bijoor said: “In terrain such as real estate and housing, never mind if you are in online or offline play, credibility and lack of controversy is good for business. However, it is not the case here. Housing needs to set its house in order.”

CMO departs

Meanwhile, the company saw another high-profile exit with the resignation of Pratik Seal, Chief Marketing Officer. Seal was responsible for the real estate portal’s ₹150-crore Look Up advertising blitz. He had joined Housing in January. (See correction below)

Earlier this month, Chief Business Officer Trip Wagoner had quit.

Correction:

With reference to the article titled 'Transfer of stake to staff-Housing CEO challenges Zomato, Ola founders' (May 16, 2015), Housing has clarified that Pratik Seal, CMO, Housing.com has not resigned. The error is regretted.

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