The Exchanges

Q I'm just so curious from a cultural standpoint. So you're head of IR, but I've also heard everybody here has multiple hats. So what other roles do you have? And is that like, what is it like working here now under CAS and that transition?

A It's been pretty incredible. Yeah. So depending on the day, it's investor relations. I kind of came up doing capital markets, a little bit of corporate development, some finance and strategy really just kind of depends on, uh, the task for the day. I think what's been really remarkable and what Kaz has honestly, like, taught me is that we're all probably a little more capable than we sometimes give ourselves credit for. So when Kaz came in, he joined at the end of September, and we did our Q-three earnings call just a couple weeks later. And, you know, before Kaz, we had done things pretty much, you know, by the books. We had the, the boring, just, you know, dial an audio call. It was, you know, a shareholder letter with, like, very, like, basic script. Kaz came in and day one was like, guys, we're doing video live stream. I want to stream it on Robinhood, which we were the first company to actually stream our earnings on Robinhood, other than Robinhood themselves. You know, we're getting rid of the shareholder letter. We are going to do say Q and A. And it was like, what it was like, I would have thought that we could do one of those every quarter. And like that, that was like the most that we could do, but Kaz set a high target and said, Hey Judd, I know that, you know, This sounds like a lot, but I know you guys can do it. And sure enough, you know, we got to production. It …

AI assessment note: “depending on the day, it's investor relations. I kind of came up doing capital markets”

Q Is it cool to have an open army? What is that like?

A Hey, it's very fun. I don't have a sword to, uh, you know, lead them into battle. I, uh, I just get to read the safe harbor disclosures at the, uh, at the start of our earnings call. But no, we, we're incredibly grateful. We certainly don't take it for granted. Um, and I think that, you know, we launched that website, accountable at opendoor.com, and we really believe that because we want to be held to account. One, again, because we recognize how critical this community has been to giving us a second birth. And again, I, you know, I've been here at Open Door for 10 years because I believe in this mission so much, and I think that you're still kind of hearing me keep going back to it so often is that, yeah, the mission matters, and so having people who believe in that same mission being able to hold us accountable is just kind of table stakes for the way we talk to our community.

AI assessment note: “Hey, it's very fun. I don't have a sword to, uh, you know”

Q why companies like NVIDIA, Anthropic, Salesforce, and Gemini partner with Turing. Turing builds realistic reinforcement learning environments and data systems based on real operational traces. The kind of infrastructure frontier labs Need to train superintelligence. Visit Turing.com slash S-O-U-R-C-E-R-Y. Alright, so we're here with Judd, Michael Judd, and we're gonna talk a little bit deeper on Opendoor lore, because he's been here the longest. So, Judd, what is it like?

A What is it like? Uh, it feels like a book with many chapters, but none of the chapters have been exactly the same, but with a common through line. See, I joined In the fall of 2016, we were in two markets. I'm one of the very few people here who actually remembers the days when Keith was in the office every single day. Oh my God. So yeah, there's just a small handful of us there. But, uh, no, I started my career in New York in finance and really didn't have any plans to, like, leave that world. But I always kind of had in my head, like, you know, if there's something that really speaks to you that feels like worth kind of making a leap on, sometimes trust that instinct. And yeah, it's fall of 2016. This little series B company, Opendoor, was revolutionizing the way that, like, homes were bought and sold in America. And what really, like, resonated for me was I could explain this idea to my grandpa. He would understand what it was and understand why it was needed. And so that was kind of what initially drew my interest. Once I kind of, like, dug under the hood and saw what they'd built so far and what the kind of vision looked like, I figured, hey, this might be worth You know, shipping across the coast and, uh, trying something new out on. And yeah, obviously, as you've kind of been able to tell from the kind of outside lens, there's been, you know, ups and downs and, you know,…

AI assessment note: “it feels like a book with many chapters, but none of the chapters have been exactly the same”

Q Why is it so important to innovate on IR in such a digital world now?

A No, I mean, you know, you and your audience, I feel like, are a great testament. It's, you know, re, I don't, retail is a word that, you know, I feel like other companies, like, refer to with, you know, a different, like, taste in their mouth, but for us, our mission is to change the way that, like, Americans, like, think about their houses, and I think that's such a core, kind of, just part of the American dream. And so with the advent of this summer and the, you know, kind of heightened attention that the business got, I think that us being able to show that we can meet the narrative where it is, rather than asking the narrative to kind of come to us on these boring, more institutional, more kind of classic, like Wall Street forums, and really feeling like people have a say in how management speaks and kind of what kind of questions we, we answer. And so I think for us, it's really About just continuing to drive the transparency and acknowledge that this second birth came on the back of people believing in us, and so meeting those believers where they are rather than forcing them into old Wall Street corners.

AI assessment note: “meeting those believers where they are rather than forcing them into old Wall Street corners”

Q Since you are the arbiter of compliance, what is the most exciting thing that's going to get launched?

A Look, I think what, you know, when Kaz became CEO, we were all excited across all these dimensions, you know, just, you know, the quality of the work that he did at Shopify and like his brand recognition, but I think what's really powerful about what he built over there is what he did on the merchant services side of the business. So Shopify kind of pre-Kaz was mostly a software business, and by the time they left, it was The software no one else could kind of compete with on a price basis, and then they offered so many value-added services on the other side that it just created a real lock-in, but also providing value to the people on that platform, and I think at Opendoor we have an amazing opportunity ahead of us for, we have thousands of people who use our product to either buy or sell their home, and in the Opendoor one point of the model there really wasn't a whole lot we kind of like did with them after or in addition to the transaction, And again, I'll let Kaz do the product launches, but I think him taking that same mindset of within this customer transaction, what else can we do that is going to be helpful to help you move on to life's next chapter? Because there's just so much that goes in with moving on to life's next chapter, and I'm just really excited with, uh, with what we're kind of building on that side of everything.

AI assessment note: “I'll let Kaz do the product launches, but I think him taking that same mindset”

Q then go full speed ahead, how do you think about all of these other companies that are in Zombieland that need some sort of, like, Hail Mary to get to the next state? What kind of companies do you think are gonna fail, and what do you think I guess to reposition it, what do you think is most critical for companies to accelerate and meet this next innovation cycle?

A Look, I think for us, or at least from what I've learned, like in my experience, it's we got this tremendous opportunity from this community that found us on the back of a couple of years of beleaguered stock price and, you know, declining sentiment. And when you're given a gift like that and a chance at a second act, You don't take it for granted, or you don't hide from it, or run away from it, and so, you know, not, what happened to us isn't going to happen to every company, but every company should have their mission, and, you know, hopefully the employees there believe in what that business is building, and when that, you know, mindset gets picked up from an external community, whether it's, you know, institutional investors, or a retail community, or the media, or, you know, kind of existing employee base, like it's, don't squander that opportunity, don't Like run away from it. It's like lean into where people are believing in you and continue to earn their trust as, ah, as they kind of put it in you.

AI assessment note: “Look, I think for us, or at least from what I've learned”