Housing.com hires former Amazon exec to beef up product team

Realty portal Housing.com, run by Locon Solutions Pvt. Ltd, has appointed Ashish Laghate as assistant vice president – product. Laghate will focus on developing consumer products and innovation at the real estate startup.

Laghate has worked extensively in brand, product management and technology strategy functions at Amazon, Time magazine and The Washington Post. During his tenure with The Washington Post, acquired by Amazon in 2013, and Time magazine, he led new product development initiatives and was responsible for implementing a product vision with high quality applications and features. He also spearheaded multiple high visibility projects including the Presidential Election of 2012, the Midterm Election of 2014, the Washington Post Paywall initiative, the Partner Program, Kindle Singles, and the Washington Post IPhone/IPad and Android apps. He also worked with Amazon on its digital initiatives focused towards developing the product road map and enhancing the state-of-the-art software system.

Prior to joining Housing, Laghate had founded Healthtec, a startup that developed a product that provides real-time healthcare monitoring to people in rural areas through mobile technology. The product was successfully tested with 4,000 people in rural areas across USA and India.

"This entire year our focus is to grow steady and strong by solving pain points in the buy and sell real-estate segment. In terms of product innovation, our team will be working to improve existing features and make new additions to add value for buyers at every step of their home buying journey," said Snehil Buxy, chief product officer, Housing.com, in a statement.

Laghate holds an MS degree in electrical engineering from the University of South Florida, Tampa and is a bachelor of engineering in electronics and telecommunication from Rajiv Gandhi Technological University, India.

Since the ousting of co-founder and CEO Rahul Yadav last year in July after a public spat with investors, Housing.com has seen a number of hires and exits.

Jason Kothari was appointed CEO in November 2015 while Mani Rangarajan was brought in as chief financial officer and Nikhil Rungta was made chief marketing officer. The firm also appointed Nandini Mehta as general counsel, Abhishek Hota as chief of staff and Keerthi Kiran as vice president of new real estate projects.

In April 2016, former executive vice president and business head of rival real estate website 99Acres.com Vineet Singh was appointed as senior advisor.

In April 2016, co-founders Abhishek Anand, Ravish Naresh and Sanat Ghosh quit the realty portal to start their own venture and March saw co-founder and former board member Advitiya Sharma resign to startup on his own.

Of the 12 IIT-Bombay alumni who founded Housing.com in 2012, only Amrit Raj, head of digital marketing; Jaspreet Singh Saluja, who heads data operations; and Snehil Buxy, who was elevated as chief product officer in January this year, now remain with the company. Four co-founders had left the startup in 2014.

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