Open Book: Raji Subramanian, CTO of Opendoor

Open Book is a series focused on showcasing the incredible people we have at Opendoor. In this spotlight we sat down with Raji Subramanian, Chief Technology Officer, to chat about her background, philosophy on leadership and opportunities at Opendoor.

What drew you to a career in the tech industry? What are you most passionate about?

There are a few parts to this answer, but I’ll start at the very beginning. When I was a young girl, I remember reading a lot — newspapers, magazine clippings, history books, you name it. As a result, I became fascinated with the Industrial Revolution. And what really stood out to me was the lack of female representation in advancements created. I remember wondering if women were equal participants in the revolution, would our world look different today? What else would have been developed? That’s when I knew I wanted to build, create and innovate to make a difference in our world.

However, growing up in India, there were different expectations of girls. Even as early as high school, girls tended to be placed in “softer” classes, while boys were encouraged to pursue more technical business-like career aspirations. I have always loved figuring out how things work and knew engineering was in my DNA. My parents shared the following life advice that I value and live by to this day: “You can do anything you want, all you need is the courage to embrace the consequences.” It was inevitable that I would go against the grain.

And that’s exactly what I did. In fact, because of my childhood, I was that much more determined to prove what I could accomplish as an engineer. I spent much of my career driving digital transformation at companies like Amazon and Yahoo. I also co-founded two companies, which I attest to my capabilities as an engineer. There is something incredibly valuable about having an idea and being able to engineer and build that idea yourself. If you learn and invest time early in engineering, I truly believe you can create anything.

Aside from my entrepreneurial spirit, my true passion lies in reimagining conventional products and services for the digital world, which is exactly what I’m doing now at Opendoor. We are digitizing and reinventing the real estate transaction, making the moving journey as seamless and flawless as possible.

What are some of the biggest opportunities you’ve encountered?

For me, the most exciting opportunities are when you are building and delivering truly game-changing products. And what I mean by that is working on things that create massive value and impact hundreds of thousands of people. For example, at Amazon, I was the first and one of the very few women principal engineers integrating Amazon’s marketplace and retail platform to offer a cohesive consumer experience across Amazon’s retail and third-party sellers. My team and I created an integrated experience at Amazon that helped transform the company from being an online retailer to becoming the largest e-commerce platform in the U.S. My work at Opendoor is similar. We are disrupting a $2.3 trillion sector of our economy. Real estate is, and has been, antiquated, logistically complex, and largely untouched by technological innovation. To be at the forefront of this kind of innovation is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

What’s your advice for others who may be seeking similar opportunities?

Think big, be fearless, and embrace being bold. Ask yourself, are you doing something that matters? Keep that mentality as your north star. Instead of saying “yes,” to every job or opportunity that presents itself, seek out work that pushes the envelope. And in doing so, don’t be afraid to fail — even if you fail 20 times or 100 times. As CTO of Opendoor, I always remind my engineers that failing is OK. Examine what you did right and what you did wrong, and learn from it for next time. That’s how innovation happens.

What are some of the toughest challenges you’ve experienced in your career?

When you’re going after audacious goals or changing the status quo the toughest part is not knowing how it is going to end. You encounter many failures before you succeed. The hardest part is to believe that you can and not give up until you reach your goal. As Albert Einstein once said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with the problems longer.” I do the same, I stick with problems longer because I believe in the vision and will do what it takes to find the way.

For example, when I worked on AWS and Amazon Marketplace, brick-and-mortar retail was king. People didn’t understand our mission. It took 15+ years for Amazon Marketplace to drive half of Amazon’s e-commerce sales and over a decade for AWS to gain meaningful traction.

I’ve learned how important it is to have conviction and see things through if you believe in them. Think long-term, have patience and embrace hard-core problem-solving.

How would you describe your leadership style in three words?

Create value, bring clarity, and deliver success. Know that was technically six words, but this is largely what I base my leadership philosophy on.

What should new members of your team expect from working with you?

I am building a culture of innovation at Opendoor, so I encourage team members to not shy away from the hard problems and address them head-on. Know that failing is OK, but if you need support, I’m only one Slack message away. No matter how big or small the question is, or if the problem is technical or personal, I’m there for my team. I care deeply about our customers, employees, and investors. And if you fail one, you fail all.

At Opendoor, innovation is core to our DNA. What approach do you take to creating innovative products and experiences for customers?

Durable generational companies are built by starting and ending with the customer. As an engineering organization, we must relentlessly obsess over the customer to win their trust. To do this, there are three stages where innovation happens. And this is what I encourage my teams to focus on.

First, in order to provide a reliable customer experience, we must continuously learn and improve with each transaction. Next, to build a trusted relationship with customers, we need to empathize and make it convenient for them to use our products. Many of our engineers join customer calls or visit our homes to understand our customers’ needs and pain points. Lastly, to foresee the customer’s future, we should focus on creating innovative products that take them there.

What do you hope to accomplish at Opendoor in the year ahead?

My vision is to reinvent real estate by transforming a deeply broken customer experience. How do you build technology that powers real estate nationwide and globally? It’s a customer experience problem. A lifecycle problem. A machine learning problem. A distributed system and workflow platform problem. It’s a security and infrastructure problem. All of these complex problems are what we’re working to solve. And I couldn’t be more excited.

What’s one guilty pleasure you enjoy?

Not really a guilty pleasure, but my favorite thing outside of work is spending time with my godchildren. I love programming, watching movies, and having a meal with them. Another activity I enjoy is visiting national parks. After going to Yellowstone I never wanted to leave. Being outside with nature gives me a sense of oneness with the universe.

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