Opendoor's Meme Fueled Shake Up

• Open to criticism: Opendoor’s CEO exit marks a rare case where meme-era stock momentum and activist pressure combine to oust the head of a company.

• Construction disruption: China’s cement production falls to its lowest July level since 2009, signaling a possible end to the construction boom.

• DIY ventures World Property Ventures is raising $100 million to fuel its “anti-VC” model, building real estate platforms in-house.

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From Italy to a Nasdaq Reservation

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Editor’s Pick

Opendoor's Meme Fueled Shake Up

It’s not every day that a real estate platform makes headlines like a meme stock. And it’s even rarer when that attention doesn’t just goose the share price but forces a change at the very top. That’s what happened this week when Carrie Wheeler, Opendoor’s CEO since 2022, stepped down after a month-long rally driven by an unusual mix of Wall Street activism and social-media-fueled enthusiasm.

Leading that charge was Eric Jackson, founder of EMJ Capital, whose public push for Opendoor’s turnaround turned into one of the most closely watched activist plays in the sector. Jackson, alongside crypto personality-turned-investor Anthony Pompliano, didn’t just hype the stock in passing. They built a case that Opendoor’s operational model had been undervalued, positioning it not as a speculative punt but as a misunderstood growth play with the tech chops to deliver.

Jackson’s history in these kinds of campaigns adds weight to the win. He’s been here before, most notably with an early bet on Carvana that went from near-collapse to market darling. His style blends financial statement deep dives with a knack for tapping into online investor communities, creating a blend of grassroots energy and hard-nosed analysis that boards can’t ignore. For Opendoor, that meant an activist narrative running parallel to retail investor hype, both working in the same direction.

The speed of the change says something about the fragility of leadership in real estate tech. Wheeler had successfully steered Opendoor to positive EBITDA and helped stabilize a volatile business model, but once the stock began to move, the conversation shifted from operations to optics. In the meme era, a soaring share price can actually make executives more vulnerable, not less, if activist voices convince the market that even better returns are just a leadership swap away.

Compared to other corners of real estate, the PropTech sector is uniquely exposed to this kind of whiplash. iBuyers like Opendoor live at the intersection of tech speculation and hard assets. In that world, the tide of investor sentiment can turn as quickly as a bubble can burst.

Overheard

China’s Construction Engine is Stalling

Cement production in China hit its weakest July since 2009, underlining how deeply the real estate and construction slowdown has set in. Once the backbone of China’s early 21st-century growth story, the construction engine is sputtering amid unresolved property sector woes and flagging infrastructure demand.

This isn’t just a seasonal blip. It’s a clear sign that the fevered pace of development, massive housing projects, and ever-expanding skylines are waning in a very fundamental way. In an echo from earlier in the year, housing starts have rolled back to levels not seen since the early 2000s, effectively rewinding more than two decades of expansion. When even cement consumption contracts, the implication is unavoidable: China’s real estate era tethered to endless growth may be officially over.

For global real estate, the lesson is stark. China’s slowdown won’t just change regional project flows—it poses a broader shift in global demand patterns. Commodities prices may retreat, supply chains recalibrate, and markets that once expected China to absorb the world’s excess capacity will have to adjust. The end of China’s building boom is not just a Chinese story—it’s a warning that growth cycles, especially when stalled, can reshape the entire investment landscape.

Can an “Anti-VC” Strategy Work in PropTech?

Michael Gerrity of World Property Ventures is pitching himself as the “anti-VC” in hopes that it will help them raise the money needed to grow its portfolio. Instead of writing big checks to nacient startups and collecting fees, WPV builds its own platforms from scratch and shares in the upside only when those ventures succeed. The company is now preparing a $100 million Reg-D capital raise that will finance their development of everything from AI-powered real estate exchanges to blockchain-based title and prediction platforms.

Since WPV isn’t backing outside startups, it will be ideating, funding, launching, and scaling everything in-house, keeping the mechanics internal and the returns aligned with performance. Platforms like a global listing engine, a real estate token exchange, and a streaming news outlet are housed under one roof—built not for venture payouts, but for ecosystem control.

For the PropTech industry, this model is both bold and promising. It sidesteps the friction of VC gatekeeping and replaces it with an operator-first playbook. If WPV hits on just a few of its platform concepts, it could emerge as a pioneer of this internal innovation approach. But if they are not able to keep up with the breakneck pace of innovation coming from startups in the space, they will struggle to raise any more money with their "anti-VC" philosophy.

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Propmodo Daily is written and edited by Franco Faraudo with contributions from readers like you and the Propmodo team.

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