Shopify chief operating officer Kaz Nejatian is leaving the e-commerce company to become the CEO of San Francisco-based real estate tech firm Opendoor.
Nejatian’s last day at Shopify will be Sept. 12, according to a regulatory filing. The rest of Shopify’s executive team will assume his responsibilities going forward.
The company thanked Nejatian for his six years of contributions in the filing, saying the remaining executive team is “ready to ensure a seamless transition.”
“Shopify gave millions of entrepreneurs the tools to change their lives, their families, and their communities. That platform mindset is what I hope to bring to Opendoor.”
Kaz Nejatian
In a statement, Shopify spokesperson Ben McConaghy said Nejatian built important products and made merchant services “a core part of Shopify.”
“We’re now entering an exciting arc in our history, with [artificial intelligence] speeding up our progress and a team that’s stronger than ever,” the statement said.
Founded in 2006 in Ottawa, Shopify is an e-commerce platform that sells services to small merchants as well as large enterprises. It’s Canada’s second-largest company by market capitalization, worth roughly $260 billion.
Nejatian joined in 2019 as a general manager and vice president of Shopify Money, served as vice president of product and merchant services, and was promoted to COO in 2022. Before Shopify, he worked briefly as a product manager at Facebook (now Meta) and co-founded Kash, a payment technology company.
In a post on X, Nejatian called his move to Opendoor a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to “redefine what’s possible in real estate.” Opendoor offers a digital real estate platform by purchasing homes, making repairs, and relisting properties for sale.
“Shopify gave millions of entrepreneurs the tools to change their lives, their families, and their communities,” Nejatian wrote. “That platform mindset is what I hope to bring to Opendoor—to build a platform for homeownership, one that unlocks opportunity for millions of families and strengthens the fabric of society.”
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Earlier this year, Shopify sunset its programs supporting Black and Indigenous entrepreneurs and laid off associated teams that reported to Nejatian, according to The Logic. Former employees told BetaKit they felt some of Nejatian’s public statements were “anti-Indigenous.” They referenced his ardent defence of Canadian historical figures such as Sir John A. Macdonald, the country’s first prime minister, who was also the architect of the residential school system.
In the early 2010s, Nejatian was a political staffer for Conservative MP Jason Kenney, who was the federal immigration minister. He was fired for breaking fundraising rules, then returned to Kenney’s office as director of communications.
Nejatian also sits on the board of the registered charity True North Centre for Public Policy, which he took over in 2017. Along with his wife, Candice Malcolm, Nejatian launched the right-wing Canadian media website True North (now rebranded as Juno News). True North came under fire last year when it published, then removed, an interview with a member of the Proud Boys. The group has been designated a terrorist entity in Canada.
The former Shopify executive will take the reins at Opendoor from interim CEO Shrisha Radhakrishna, who stepped in after CEO Carrie Wheeler left in August. This followed a period of GameStop-style trading led by retail investors that resulted in the company’s share price surging more than 400 percent since the beginning of the year.
According to Opendoor’s regulatory filing, Nejatian’s compensation is dependent on Opendoor’s stock price reaching targets over the next five years, up to $33 USD. Nejatian could be given nearly 82 million common shares, which could result in compensation of more than $2.6 billion USD. In 2024, Nejatian’s total compensation at Shopify totaled just over $1 million USD, combining base salary and share-based awards. He also received a $75-million USD grant of restricted stock units and stock options in December 2023.
Opendoor’s shares on the Nasdaq have popped more than 60 percent since yesterday’s closing price, and are now trading around $9.40 USD. Shopify stock dropped slightly yesterday afternoon, but was back up 2.5 percent today, trading at around $202 USD on the Nasdaq.
Disclosure: BetaKit majority owner Good Future is the family office of two former Shopify leaders, Arati Sharma and Satish Kanwar.
Image by Ramsey Cardy/Collision via Sportsfile. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.