You’ve all no doubt heard about the case
about the investors of housing.com oust the very founder of the company, Rahul
Yadav. There must be a number of cases where similar things have happened to
entrepreneurs who have sought investors to fund their fledgling start-ups. Now,
I don’t presume to compare myself with Yadav in any way but…
Mine is one such story as well.
In September, 2013, three of my friends and
I came up with an idea of starting up a news website for the students of the
institute where we studied. We envisioned it as a platform for our fellow
students to participate actively in the fields they were studying for. A
practical approach to academics is what we brought our focus on when we thought
up our web magazine.
Since we thought this up on the stairs of
our institute, and involved the contribution of every one of our students, it
was obvious that we were going to approach our management with this plan. We
did so, and to our utter surprise obtained instant and enthusiastic support. We
were asked to begin work immediately and submit requests for funding as and
when required.
We were ecstatic and set up our website
over eight months of planning, business model development, website designing
and social media operations. Finally, out product was launched on the April 12,
2014 in the presence of the institute management and students. We had our own
start up!
I assumed the role of Editor-in-chief,
another co-founder as Chief Technical Executive and the other two co-founders
as Editors of the two beats they excelled at. Although this selection does not
seem fair, I must point out that the people in these posts were ratified by a
general election within a week.
We ran the website with vigour and
published 54 articles in the first two months of the launch alongside our
hectic study schedule, assignments and internships. Some of our students even
worked full time to support their education and even they contributed in one
way or another to the initial success of this operation.
As in any other organization, we faced
criticism, disgruntled employees and complaints relating to bias and prejudice.
Although, all of these allegations were proved to be baseless time and again,
these problems seemed to have an impact on the trust the management had placed
on us and the morale of the entire team as well.
Decision-making ultimately passed to a
representative of the investor (management) and although I still held editorial
powers along with other editors, it became increasingly apparent that the
democratic model upon which we had founded this organization was to come under
fire from those who had deigned to finance it.
Finally, fed up with constant intrusions
upon my sovereignty as Editor and decision making behind my back, I resigned
from my post at the end of two months to allow for a new editor and pledged my
support to the team if they needed it; albeit from outside. My resignation was
rejected for reason I’m sure you can imagine and was told to maintain charge
till they (management) could decide on someone to take my place and restructure
the organization, placing their representative in overall charge.
Reluctantly, I withdrew my resignation in
the interest of the magazine against my better judgement. But by then, the
determination to lead controlled organization had left me and the team’s will
to work had waned to the point that they refused work until the tie this matter
was sorted out.
Two months of forced pieces and
half-hearted work later, the management decided not to amend their mistakes but
to make some more. They asked for my resignation in August, 2014, appointed
their own Editor and asked the rest of the team to resign as well. They held a
rigged election, refused to reveal the results and formed their own team
against the wishes of the student body.
They rebelled.
Today, our organization lies, covered in
dust, waiting for a new generation of students to shake the dust off what would
have been a reputed student’s platform if only power hadn’t corrupted the
investor.
Although complete in itself, this is still an excerpt of the whole case. You can read the full story here: The Story of an Ousted CEO
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