Advitiya Sharma, co-founder of Housing.com, has finally called it quits at the online real estate portal. Sharma was one of the key members and was responsible for the company's growth in the last four years.
Sharma told BusinessLine that he plans to take a break before embarking on his next entrepreneurial journey. “I plan to go on a 10-day Vipassana and then think of what to do. There are many problems to be solved in the Indian market. Real estate and food are the biggest problems which have not been solved yet. And no I am not joining anyone (read Rahul Yadav, ex-founder of Housing)," Sharma added.
“There will be a ‘Housing’ in me forever, proud of what we achieved together!” he said, adding that “In our mission to bring transparency in real estate, we faced a lot of resistance. Few times from brokers and builders, sometimes by investors. And many times by the media. It only made us stronger. No matter what challenges they threw at us, we loved solving them together.”
Sharma's ouster comes almost nine months after Rahul Yadav was fired from the Softbank-backed company. In an emotional letter to the employees at Housing, Sharma said that, “The toughest phase in our history was the last nine months. Nothing haunts a team more than a threat to the survival of what they stand for. The leadership team's hard work is now taking shape. It is with great attachment that I choose to detach and walk a different path."
The company is now headed by Jason Kothari with Mani Rangarajan as its CFO and Nikhil Rungta as chief marketing officer.
With Sharma's ouster, the founding member of Housing is now down to six from 1. It was founded in 2012 by 12 IITians from Bombay.