Talking Drones and Machine Learning With HDFC Red CEO Sohel I S

The startup-within-a-big-company is a narrative that's becoming increasingly popular, but Sohel I S, CEO of the property portal HDFC RED, feels that six years on, the mindset genuinely applies to his organisation, where the average age of the team is still 28. "We're able to make decisions quickly and don't have to go through so much hierarchy and we've had to be very fiscally responsible," Sohel tells Gadgets 360. This also helped the company have a relatively narrow focus from the beginning, something he says helped a lot. While many of the best known companies in the property space in India got their start in the rental market, HDFC RED stayed out of that segment, focused instead on the buying and selling of private homes from the beginning. Last year, Housing.com announced layoffs and shut down its rentals; visit most of the other popular sites and the first option you now see is "Buy".