Founded by a young group of 12 IIT (Bombay) students in June 2012, the Gurugram based real estate search portal has always been in the news for its unconventional and rapidly flourishing ways of business.
Housing.com had set the bar for Indian startups very high, be it with it’s cutting edge technology, the unprecedented amount of funding it raised, or the never-seen-before nexus of talented product designers headed by the then Chief Design Officer Suvonil Chatterjee.
Of the many people who were in the design team at Housing.com, some went on to achieve amazing things in the design industry. The culture at Housing was such that many of them were also good friends and ended up working in the same companies post Housing.
So what did these guys do at Housing back then? And what are they doing now? Let’s find out!
Suvonil Chatterjee:
Role at Housing: Chief Design Officer
Current: Ola, Head of Design
Suvonil Chatterjee was Housing’s first Head of Design (Joined in 2013) and was responsible for the overall User Interface and User Experience Design of Housing.com. In 2015, he got promoted to the Chief Design Officer, when he grew the design team from 0 to 55, one of the best design teams India has seen. After Housing, he led the design teams in other popular startups such as Flipkart and Unacademy. He’s currently heading the design team at Ola.
Gaurav Joshi:
Role at Housing: Head of Design
Current: Hotstar, Head of Design
Gaurav Joshi started out as a UI/UX Designer and also dabbled in Product Design at Housing before he went on to head the design team after Suvonil Chatterjee. Currently, he’s the head of Design at Hotstar.
Kanupriya Jain:
Role at Housing: VP, Design (UX)
Current: Paysense, Head of Design
Kanupriya Jain was one of the first designers to come onboard, rather one of the first employees. She was a part of the UX design team at Housing and post that became the Head of Design at Paysense.
Harshil Sharma:
Role at Housing: Design Manager
Current: Ola, Principal Designer
After leaving Housing, Harshil Sharma headed the Mobile Design team at Flipkart and is currently a Principal Designer at Ola.
Adit Gupta:
Role at Housing: Product Designer
Current: Uber, Senior Product Designer
Adit Gupta was a part of Product Design Teams in companies like Flipkart and (currently) Uber, after leaving one at Housing.
Adil Siddiqui:
Role at Housing: Product Designer
Current: Head of Design, Simpl
Adil Siddiqui looked after Product Design at Housing, after which he was a Design consultant at CrossCues Corporation followed by Simpl, where he’s currently the Head of Design.
Jekin Gala:
Role at Housing: AVP, Product Design
Current: Anarock, VP (Product Design)
Product Designer, Jekin Gala is currently the VP (Product Design) at Anarock, post-Housing where he was AVP, Product Design.
Ramakrishna Venkatesan:
Role at Housing: Senior UI/ UX designer
Current: Zeta, Head of Design
Ramakrishna Venkatesan started off as a UI/UX Designer at Housing and eventually Senior UI/UX Designer. He later worked as the Head of Design at Zeta.
Shuchita Baranwal:
Role at Housing: Design Team Lead
Current: OLA , Design leader
Shuchita Baranwal was the Design Team lead at Housing and went on to become the Head of Design at OYO Rooms. She is currently working as Design Leader at OLA.
Abhinav Chhikara:
Role at Housing: UI/UX Designer
Current: Unacademy, Head of Design
Abhinav Chhikara helped with the UI/UX Design of Housing. He then Co-founded the Music App Lisn Inc. and also created the design inspiration website UI Sources. He’s currently the Head of Design at Unacademy.
Saptarshi Prakash:
Role at Housing: Senior Product Designer
Current: Swiggy, Product Design Manager
Another Product Designer, Saptarshi Prakash, left Housing to work for other popular brands such as Zeta and Swiggy.
Sruthi Sivakumar:
Role at Housing: Design Lead
Current: Bounce, Head of Design
Sruthi Sivakumar had a subsequent growth at Housing, from UX Designer to Senior UX Designer to Design Lead. Followed by the post of Design Lead at Treebo Hotels and currently the Head of Design at Bounce.
Akanksha Singh:
Role at Housing: UX Design Manager
Current: Expedia, Principal Design Manager
Akanksha Singh managed the UX Design team at Housing. Post Housing she worked with an impressive array of companies like Ask me.com, Paytm and currently manages Principal Design at Expedia.
Amit Das:
Role at Housing: VP, Design
Current: Cuddle.ai, Head of Design
At Housing, Amit Das was the VP of Design. Later he Co-founded Intelligent Interfaces and was responsible for the entire Product and Interaction Design. He was then VP, Design at Urban Clap and is currently the Head of Design at Cuddle.ai which is incubated by the analytics firm Fractal Analytics.
It can be said that among other things, Housing.com was responsible for incubating a Design Mafia of sorts in India. Housing’s Design Mafia is on the rise, with these folks as it’s godfathers.
Do let us know if we’ve missed out on anyone!
