Fast-growing and well-funded iBuying startup Opendoor announced Monday it has hired a handful of new executives and board members, some of whom have past experience at high-profile companies including Amazon and Netflix.
Julie Todaro
The new executives include Julie Todaro, who will serve as the company’s president of homes and services, and Tom Willerer, Opendoor’s new chief product officer. Todaro spent 13 years working at Amazon, serving most recently as a vice president of consumer electronics before departing the online retailer in 2013. More recently, she has spent time as an e-commerce consultant and worked with well-known companies such as Airbnb.
Tom Willerer
In a blog post Monday, Opendoor founder Eric Wu said that Todaro’s “deep experience building operational excellence at fast-growing organizations will be invaluable for the next stage of Opendoor.”
Willerer worked as a vice president of product management at Netflix from 2007 to 2013. He later did a brief stint at Facebook and has most recently served as a partner at venture capital firm Venrock.
Wu wrote Monday that Willerer’s “entrepreneurial spirit and product leadership are the perfect mix as we continue to build an end-to-end product experience where anyone can buy, sell or trade-in a home at the click of a button.”
Opendoor’s choice of Todaro and Willerer — both of whom have backgrounds in technology but not real estate specifically — is significant as the company continues to position itself as a Silicon Valley disrupter rather than just another firm that sells houses. The decision to look outside of real estate also follows something of a trend in the industry; last year Compass — which like Opendoor has a massive war chest of Softbank money — hired executives from Spotify and Eventbrite.
Realogy has also looked beyond real estate for leadership, notably hiring Ryan Schneider of credit card company Capital One in 2017.
Gautam Gupta
In addition to Todaro and Willerer, Opendoor also announced Monday that Gautam Gupta will step into the duel roles of chief business officer and chief financial officer. Gupta has worked at Opendoor for the last two years and previously did stints at both Uber and Goldman Sachs.
Wu wrote in his blog post Monday that “Gautam has done an incredible job growing and scaling” Opendoor’s operations so far.
Opendoor told Inman Monday that the roles Todaro and Willerer are stepping into are new positions at the company. Chief business officer, one of Gupta’s jobs, is also a new position. The role of chief financial officer was previously filled by Jason Child, who left Opendoor in May.
Opendoor also announced Monday that Carrie Wheeler and Jason Kilar will now serve on the company’s board of directors. Wheeler has served on the boards of well-known companies including J.Crew, Dollar Tree and Petco. Kilar was the founding CEO of video streaming platform Hulu and has also worked in leadership roles at Amazon.
In his blog post, Wu concluded that “creating joyful customer experiences starts with great leaders and teams, and I couldn’t be more excited to join forces with Julie, Tom, GG, Carrie, and Jason to rebuild how people buy and sell a home.”
