EMJCapital

Fahd Ananta Verified account @fahdananta · Oct 4, 2025

I want to share the story behind why I joined Opendoor

(It might be a little long. I'm not media trained, so this will be straight from the dome and I'm just going to hit send at the end)

The last 4 years I was basically retired. I started a small fund and was having a great time investing. I live a pretty modest life so I never really planned to work again. Over the years so many companies reached out. I met with the execs of large public companies, celebrities and athletes that were starting software companies, and so on. Some I really considered, but always ended up say no. It wasn't about the money, they offered insane amounts but I just liked my simple life. I'd drop my kid at school, bike to the studio space I share with a bunch of my friends, spend the day reading, investing, coding, grab a coffee, and head home.

I've always been fascinated by asymmetric risks. Usually I do it from the sidelines like any other retail investor. I've also seen how often consensus is flat out wrong. I was at Shopify as a lowly PM when this short seller report came out in 2017 calling the business a pyramid scheme. It was crazy to reconcile what I was seeing in front my eyes, a company operating at maximum excellence, hypergrowth, etc and everyone else repeating whatever they heard. Turns out they were wrong.

I saw this a few times over. Before Shopify, while I was building my first startup, everyone thought we were idiots. These were credible people with serious sounding job titles at hot tech companies. We ended up getting acquired by HubSpot. Turns out they were wrong.

When Carvana got decimated, and even today, people love the narrative that it's a fraud. Turns out it's a great business that people just don't understand. I was deeply invested in the business and knew the business was turning around while at the same time the media was publishing fear. Turns out they were wrong.

After Robinhood got decimated, same thing, people were unable to consider that the business can change and evolve. I posted an experiment and my P&L on twitter and people DMed me calling me an idiot, over indexed, going to 0, and so on. Not just the anon accounts but real people I know and respect. Turns out they were all wrong.

I guess I'm not just fascinated by asymmetric risk but I'm addicted to situations where I think everyone else is wrong. At Opendoor, it's incredible man, I get to actually do the work, not just watch from the sidelines. I get to work with people that are at the top of their craft and fully committed to the mission.

So, when the opportunity came up. It was an instant decision. I "un-retired" and am all-in on the biggest bet of my life. We'll see how it works out but you already know where I placed my chips.

At the end of the day, none of this shit matters. We just have to ball out, have fun, and pursue excellence. I'm not doing this for the money, I already have more than I can spend in my lifetime. I'm doing this for the love of the game and most importantly, I'm doing this because I think everyone else is wrong.

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