Opendoor’s Rebirth: Can the Army Turn Meme Momentum Into Millions?

Opendoor (OPEN) is suddenly the comeback story no one saw coming.

Once left for dead as a failed SPAC trading at just $0.50, Opendoor stock has skyrocketed more than 20X in just two months. 

The turnaround has been fueled by retail investors, bold leadership changes, and a complete reimagining of the business around AI. 

Now Wall Street is asking: is this just another fleeting meme-stock spike – or the start of one of the most remarkable corporate transformations in modern history?

We think the latter…

The Rise of the Opendoor Army: Retail Investors Take Charge

Rewind to early July 2025, when Opendoor was basically a punchline.

The onetime iBuying pioneer had been reduced to a penny stock, trading for less than a buck after years of brutal losses, collapsing home volumes, and a balance sheet weighed down by money-losing inventory. Its market cap had gone from $20 billion at its SPAC peak to less than $500 million.

Then came Eric Jackson.

If you don’t know him, he’s a founding hedge fund manager at EMJ Capital. He got wrecked in 2022 after an anchor investor withdrew substantial funds during a tech downturn. But he redeemed himself with his legendary call on Carvana (CVNA), which went from $4 to $400 in just two years. 

When he says he sees a ‘100-bagger,’ people listen.

In July, Jackson tweeted that he had taken a stake in Opendoor and believed it could be his next 100-bagger. The internet took that and ran. Within days, thousands of retail traders piled in, and the ‘Opendoor Army’ was born.

At first, it looked like a classic meme-stock spike. OPEN sprinted from $0.50 to $3. Then $5. But as quickly as it came, the rally faded. By early August, Opendoor had slipped back below $2 after posting another ugly earnings report.

Everyone figured the meme trade was over.

Boy, were they wrong.

Opendoor’s Meme Stock Rally Becomes a Real Turnaround

The second act of this saga began when Anthony Pompliano – better known as ‘Pomp,’ the crypto influencer with millions of followers – disclosed that he had also taken a stake in Opendoor.

Suddenly, this wasn’t just Jackson. It was Jackson and Pomp, two widely followed internet investors both planting their flags on this struggling company.

The retail crowd doubled down. They didn’t just want the stock to go higher. They wanted to change the company itself, demanding:

1. A new CEO with AI bona fides.
2. A reimagined business model centered on AI-driven services, not risky housing inventory.
3. The return of original co-founders like Keith Rabois and Eric Wu.

And Opendoor actually listened.

In mid-August, then-CEO Carrie Wheeler abruptly resigned – the first domino to fall. Within weeks, the board was reshuffled. Rabois and Wu were invited back, with Rabois becoming Chairman. Former Shopify (SHOP) COO Kax Nejatian – a product visionary with a strong AI track record – was named CEO.

To top it off, Khosla Ventures cut a $40 million check to support the turnaround.

What started as a meme rally became a grassroots shareholder revolt that literally reinvented the company.

And the rocketed again, blasting past $10 for a 20X gain from its July lows.

The Original Vision: Reinventing Housing With iBuying

To appreciate what’s happening now, you need to remember what Opendoor was always meant to be.

Founded in 2014 by Keith Rabois, Eric Wu, and JD Ross, Opendoor’s mission was simple: make buying and selling homes as easy as buying and selling products on Amazon (AMZN).

The company pioneered ‘iBuying’ – offering instant cash offers on homes through its digital platform, then reselling those homes for profit.

The model worked… for a while. By 2019, Opendoor was moving nearly 19,000 homes annually and generating close to $5 billion in revenue. In its established metros like Phoenix, it was hitting 2% market share.

Bigtime VC Chamath Palihapitiya took it public via SPAC in 2020. The stock ripped to $40, and the valuation topped $20 billion.

Then came inflation, high interest rates, a frozen housing market – and the iBuying model broke.

Buying real estate in bulk works when home prices rise; but it’s a bloodbath when prices fall or stagnate. By 2022, Opendoor was fire-selling inventory, burning cash, and laying off staff. The stock cratered.

And by July of this year, OPEN looked dead in the water… until it was rescued by the Opendoor Army.