Anand Chandrasekaran, Snapdeal’s chief product officer, on Tuesday joined the growing tribe of prized Silicon Valley hires who quit Indian unicorns within a year of signing up. Chandrasekaran had joined Snapdeal from telecom major Airtel but it was his stint at Yahoo, US that was the attraction for the Delhi-based online marketplace when he was brought on board.
Roping in Chandrasekaran was also seen as Snapdeal’s answer to Flipkart hiring ex-Googler Punit Soni as CPO three months earlier (in June last year). Soni recently left Flipkart after the company could not provide him a clear role after its senior-level management reshuffle.
“Anand has decided to move out of Snapdeal and pursue entrepreneurial interests. Anand has done some stellar work on the product side at Snapdeal. His insights and attention to detail have helped us traverse quickly towards launching and improving products at Snapdeal. We wish Anand the very best for his entrepreneurial journey ahead,” a Snapdeal spokesperson told TOI in an emailed response.
Over the last one year, leading ecommerce companies like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Zomato scouted for tech talent in the Valley, luring them to India with fat pay cheques. Peeyush Ranjan, head of engineering, and Soni hogged the limelight when they joined Flipkart, while Zomato roped in former Facebook employee Namita Gupta as CPO. Gupta too left after spending less than a year at Zomato in July last year. Tanmay Saxsena, who replaced Gupta at Zomato after spending over a decade in the Valley, has also left the online restaurant discovery platform to join healthcare startup 1mg.
“There are two key reasons for Valley talent to leave after short stints: First, this is a different environment than Valley and there are cultural differences. Second, all of them are overpriced for the role they were hired for. Scenario a year back was different but now the companies are tightening their spends as funding crunch is a reality,” Kris Lakshmikanth, CMD at Head Hunters India, said.
Chandrasekaran was heading the product division for Snapdeal, Freecharge, Shopo, Exclusively, among others. His exit adds to the continuous churn at Snapdeal, which saw many top-level exits over the past year, including Srinivas Murthy, senior VP marketing; Rajan Kant who headed strategy; Aakash Moondhra, CFO; Amitabh Misra, chief technology officer, among others. In fact, earlier this month Rahul Taneja, who was vice-president and head of category management at Snapdeal, resigned to join rival Jabong.
Meanwhile, Freecharge elevated its COO Govind Rajan as CEO while the incumbent, Kunal Shah, will take over the role of chairman.
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