Nadav Shoval, founder of OpenWeb, is resisting his replacement as CEO by Tim Harvey following a controversial board decision. The power struggle erupted publicly in September 2024, raising concerns and sowing confusion about corporate governance at the Israeli-based unicorn.
What is OpenWeb?
OpenWeb is an Israeli-founded platform for community engagement. It boasts over 100 million active users and collaborates with more than 1,000 publishers. International household names include The New York Times, Hearst, Yahoo!, and News Corp. These platforms rely on OpenWeb to help promote healthy online conversations and build vibrant communities.
Launched in 2012 as Spot.IM by Nadav Shoval, Roee Goldberg, and Ishay Green, the company raised $170 million in Series F funding in October 2022. Georgian led the round, which was valued at $1.5 billion. To date, OpenWeb has secured a total of $393 million in funding.
Who are Tim Harvey and Nadav Shoval?
Tim Harvey, a former advisor and board member at OpenWeb, brings over 30 years of leadership experience in high-growth, venture-backed, and public companies. He is also Chairman of VTS, a leading commercial real estate software company, and advises several other tech firms.
Nadav Shoval is the co-founder and CEO of OpenWeb, the Israeli-founded platform for online community engagement. Under his leadership, OpenWeb has grown to partner with top global publishers, raised $393 million in funding, and reached a valuation of $1.5 billion.
How It All Unfolded
It all started with Tim Harvey, the then-chairman of the board, making the announcement that he would be taking over as CEO during a company-wide Town Hall meeting on September 10th.
A subsequent email circulated to employees read, “I will be stepping in as our new CEO, succeeding Nadav Shoval, who has led the company with incredible passion and vision since its inception,”
However, Nadav Shoval contradicted this in his own subsequent email to OpenWeb’s staff, stating, “The board has falsely stated that I am stepping out of my role as CEO. Let me be clear: that is not true and not my intent.”
He further explained that he “...will continue relentlessly fighting for OpenWeb's mission and purpose. I notified the Board that they breached my contract, which was intended to directly call out their concerning conduct. Instead of addressing these issues, the Board decided to move forward with an attempted leadership transition, continuing to act against OpenWeb's best interests.”
This, in turn, prompted another statement from Harvey insisting that the transition is going forward as planned: "Apologies to everyone who received this email. We are progressing with the CEO transition process as planned. As we move forward, we are committed to handling this situation with the utmost respect for all individuals involved and acknowledging their contributions to OpenWeb. Our priority remains the continued success, stability and providing value to our partners."
Unsurprisingly, an official statement by OpenWeb stuck to the same line as the incoming CEO, Harvey:
“OpenWeb welcomes Tim Harvey as interim CEO, replacing Nadav Shoval. The company recognizes Nadav for his passion and contributions as the founder and CEO of OpenWeb.”
Conclusion
For now, it’s not clear exactly what caused the rift between Nadav and OpenWeb’s board in the first place. The company already lists Tim Harvey as Interim CEO on its website, while Nadav’s bio has been removed.
For his part, Nadav has continued to speak out against and oppose the move on his LinkedIn account.
