Keith Rabois, Opendoor ($OPEN) co-founder & newly appointed Board Chair, Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, and a core member of the PayPal Mafia, joins Sourcery to discuss the activist turnaround being led at Opendoor.
Opendoor just named former Shopify executive Kaz Nejatian as CEO, with Rabois returning to reshape the company’s cost structure and culture. In his words to CNBC: “There’s 1,400 employees at Opendoor. I don’t know what most of them do. We don’t need more than 200 of them.” He says the business must slash its workforce by as much as 85% to achieve long-term viability.
The announcement sent Opendoor stock soaring 78% in a single day before retreating 13% the next — still up nearly 500% year-to-date, fueled by retail investors and hedge fund manager Eric Jackson’s campaign.
In this conversation, Rabois breaks down:
- Why he returned to Opendoor as Chairman & what went wrong.
- The decision to appoint Kaz Nejatian as CEO & why the right CEO changes everything.
- How AI will be the biggest unlock in making housing transactions faster, cheaper, & more affordable.
- The long-term mission to transform a $289 trillion real estate market.
- Lessons from PayPal, Square, and decades of building & backing companies at scale.
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Chapters:
(00:00) Keith Rabois
(01:49) Why Keith returned to Opendoor as Chairman
(03:28) Appointing Kaz Nejatian as CEO & why leadership is everything
(07:57) Activist turnaround playbook: talent, cost cuts, innovation
(09:41) What went wrong — interest rates, cost structure, & cycles
(13:09) AI as the biggest unlock for housing transactions
(15:08) The “Buy It Now” button for homes
(17:06) Why selling a home is broken — how Opendoor fixes it
(22:09) Why DC is becoming a hub for tech founders
