{"id":219889,"date":"2025-09-12T03:54:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T03:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/219889\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T03:54:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T03:54:16","slug":"opendoor-brings-back-its-founders-and-welcomes-a-new-ceo-from-shopify-who-could-earn-2-8-billion-if-he-sends-the-stock-soaring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/219889\/","title":{"rendered":"Opendoor brings back its founders and welcomes a new CEO from Shopify\u2014who could earn $2.8 billion if he sends the stock soaring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opendoor Technologies<\/a> is going all in<\/a> on new CEO Kaz Nejatian with an aggressive compensation package that could see him clear $2.78 billion and own nearly 12% of the company. But he\u2019ll have to do more than triple the share price of a real estate technology company some have deemed a buzzy meme stock<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Nejatian<\/a> will have Opendoor\u2019s founders\u2014Eric Wu and Khosla Ventures\u2019 Keith Rabois<\/a>\u2014overseeing him on the board. Wu served as Opendoor\u2019s CEO from 2013 to 2022 and chaired the board from 2020 to 2022. Rabois, who served on the boards of Reddit and Yelp and currently serves on the board of Ramp<\/a>, was appointed chairman. Both are returning to Opendoor to bring back \u201cfounder DNA and energy,\u201d the company announced. They\u2019ll also inject capital; Khosla Ventures and Wu invested $40 million of equity capital into Opendoor through a private purchase. Meanwhile, two other directors, Pueo Keffer and Glenn Solomon, have stepped down in a significant leadership shuffle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a press release, Opendoor said it was \u201cgoing into founder mode\u201d with Nejatian\u2019s appointment and in luring Rabois and Wu back with seats on the board and new financing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLiterally there was only one choice for the job: Kaz,\u201d said Rabois in a statement. \u201cI am thrilled that he will be serving as CEO of Opendoor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nejatian\u2019s pay package will see Opendoor turn away from traditional CEO compensation plans in favor of a return to massive equity awards tied entirely to stock price performance, according to his offer. Nejatian left his role as chief operating officer at Shopify<\/a> to join Opendoor, and he\u2019ll get two \u201cmake-whole\u201d awards from his new bosses. The first is a $15 million cash award, and the second is a $15 million restricted-stock unit award. Both vest in nine months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nejatian, who previously cofounded a payment tech company called Kash, will also get two performance-based awards. The first award of 40.9 million shares is basically designed around ensuring that shareholder value isn\u2019t eroded, said Farient Advisors vice president Eric Hoffmann. The shares vest in installments over five years with a stock price gate of $6.24, which means the stock has to maintain an average closing price of $6.24 or higher over a 60-day period for vesting to take place. Opendoor\u2019s stock surged more than 78% on Thursday following Nejatian\u2019s appointment to $10.49, but in June, the stock hovered around 56 cents a share.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The second performance award is designed like a moonshot with seven stock price hurdles ranging from $9 to $33. The tranches only vest when the stock hits price milestones of $9, $13, $17, $21, $25, and $33.<\/p>\n

If Nejatian can hit all those price targets, he\u2019ll be rewarded with compensation valued at $2.78 billion\u2014and he\u2019ll own 11.6% of the company, double the stake Wu held when Opendoor went public through a SPAC in 2020, Hoffmann told Fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I find interesting is that they clearly believe that this guy, who was the COO at Shopify, is going to make or break this company,\u201d said Hoffmann. \u201cThey are willing to make a very large bet and put a lot of power and money into his pocket to get him on board and motivated to grow and drive the company forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nejatian\u2019s package is similar to that of other CEOs at tech companies with hefty stock price growth goals, said Farient\u2019s senior data analyst, Claire Kamas. Similar plans were in place at online delivery platform DoorDash<\/a> and Airbnb<\/a> after they went public, she added.<\/p>\n

When Wu served as CEO, the company had a similar structure<\/a>, noted Hoffmann, although Wu\u2019s price milestones were higher at $18.11, $23.54, $30.60, $39.78, $51.71, and $67.23. He hit the first milestone before resigning in 2022. The Opendoor board replaced him with Carrie Wheeler<\/a>, who had been the chief financial officer. Wheeler stepped down on Aug. 15.<\/p>\n

Wheeler\u2019s pay package<\/a> included a base salary of $750,000 plus a cash bonus of $250,000, and she was awarded restricted stock valued at $25 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nejatian, conversely, will have a base salary of $1 and no bonus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to become Opendoor\u2019s leader,\u201d said Nejatian. \u201cFew life events are as important as buying or selling a home. With AI, we have the tools to make that experience radically simpler, faster, and more certain. That\u2019s the future we\u2019re building.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Fortune Global Forum<\/strong> returns Oct. 26\u201327, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opendoor Technologies is going all in on new CEO Kaz Nejatian with an aggressive compensation package that could…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":219890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[244,64,74645,18313,17342,525,119837,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-219889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-billionaires","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ceo-salaries-and-executive-compensation","11":"tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","12":"tag-compensation","13":"tag-finance","14":"tag-khosla-ventures","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115189308762451356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}