Online Critics Push Opendoor CEO Out

Carrie Wheeler isn’t one of tech’s big names, but she may go down in history as the latest victim of an online mob. The CEO of home-buying firm Opendoor stepped down Friday after weeks of relentless attacks on her on X, including from investor Eric Jackson and venture capitalist Keith Rabois, a co-founder and onetime executive chair of Opendoor. Whoever succeeds Wheeler had better wear a bulletproof vest.

Opendoor occupied a tough business—buying up houses and trying to flip them at a profit—one that real estate ad firm Zillow dabbled in and then exited a few years ago after suffering heavy losses. Wheeler didn’t invent the business. A longtime private equity executive at TPG, she took over as CEO in late 2022 after a stint as chief financial officer, succeeding co-founder Eric Wu, who was demoted as rising interest rates were battering the housing market as well as Opendoor’s business, putting it deeply into the red. As Wheeler said in a post today, she was asked to take over when “the company was in crisis” and “the business needed a reset.”