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Why I Returned As CEO After 5 Years Away

Nirav Tolia, Co-Founder & CEO of Nextdoor, joins NEW ECONOMIES on the company's founding story, why Nirav came back as CEO and the impact of community in the midst of AI.

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Nirav Tolia is the co-founder and CEO of Nextdoor, the neighborhood network connecting over 110 million people across communities worldwide. Having built and sold Shopping.com to eBay, returned to lead Nextdoor through a major transformation, and served as a guest shark on Shark Tank, Nirav is one of Silicon Valley’s most seasoned operators. In this episode, we explore what it takes to rebuild a company from the inside — and why the hardest thing in tech isn’t starting, it’s coming back.

We discuss Nextdoor’s origin story, born from the ashes of a failed startup called Fanbase, and the crucible moment that gave Nirav the courage to keep going. We dig into what it really feels like to return as founder-CEO after five and a half years away, why incumbency is often the straightest path to irrelevance, and how Nextdoor is repositioning itself for what Nirav calls the age of human connection — where AI reduces friction but real neighbors remain irreplaceable. We also explore the future of local community, the untapped potential of 110 million sign-ups, and the lessons Nirav has taken from working alongside legendary investor and mentor Bill Gurley for over two decades.

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Timestamps

(0:00) Nirav Tolia, Co-Founder & CEO at Nextdoor,(2:05) A Multi-year Turnaround (4:20) Crucible Moments That Led to 20+ Million Users (9:25) How to Fight Through Difficult Days (13:20) A Blossoming Co-founding Relationship (17:37) Stepping Away, Then Coming Back As CEO (24:40) The Third Act: An Enabled AI Version (29:50) The Age of Human Connection (36:30) Building To Stay Relevant (44:30) Will Nextdoor Win In This Market? (52:15) Rapid Fire Round

Our notes from this conversation

1. The Crucible Moment Is About Daily Survival, Not Long-Term Vision

The romanticized version of founding a company — the carefully considered spreadsheet, the bold strategic plan — is a myth constructed in retrospect. In the moment, it’s pure survival. Nextdoor was born from the ashes of a failed company called Fanbase, with co-founders who gave themselves one last summer to find something that worked. Having the courage to keep going when things are at their darkest is what separates founders who break through from those who don’t.

2. The Only Tolerable Way Through the Entrepreneurial Journey Is With Other People

Nirav credits community — specifically his co-founder Sarah Leary, who he’s worked alongside for 27 years — as the through line of everything. Great co-founders aren’t just talented; they’re people you like, respect, and trust in equal measure. You need someone who can crack a joke at the right moment, solve an impossible problem the next, and stay when everyone else heads for the exits. That combination is extraordinarily rare, and when you find it, you don’t let go.

3. Coming Back as CEO Is Harder Than Starting From Scratch

Returning founders face a unique psychological challenge: the temptation to restore what once was. Nirav was clear from day one that the answer was never to go back. The company he left in 2018 was different from the one he rejoined in 2023, and the company that needs to be built now is different again. The only useful frame when returning is phase three — learning from both prior chapters, but building something genuinely new.

4. Incumbency Is the Straightest Path to Irrelevance

The story of the tech industry is one company eating another in a cycle of creative destruction. Standing still is effectively moving backwards. Nextdoor’s next phase required asking honestly: what still matters to people today, and what doesn’t? The shift from “what happened last weekend in my neighborhood” to “what’s happening this weekend” is deceptively simple but fundamentally changes the product — moving from objective information to subjective, human recommendation, which is something an LLM will never do as well as a neighbor.

5. The Age of Human Connection Is Not in Competition With AI — It Requires It

The false choice between AI efficiency and human authenticity is one of the most important things Nirav pushes back on. The birth of the internet was the age of information. The emergence of AI is the age of intelligence. What comes next is the age of human connection — and AI’s role is to reduce the friction that stops people from finding each other, not to replace the connection itself. Nextdoor’s early decision to require real names and verified addresses, made long before AI was a concern, turns out to be one of its most valuable assets in a world where trust and identity are everything.

6. Bill Gurley’s Lesson: Whatever You’ve Achieved, 10x It

No matter where Nextdoor reached, Bill Gurley’s consistent challenge was to multiply it. Not iterate — multiply by 10x. That relentless expansion of what’s possible, held by someone who simultaneously believes you’re capable of it, is the rarest and most valuable thing an investor can offer a founder. It’s not just high expectations. It’s high expectations paired with genuine faith.

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I Had To Save Nextdoor | Co-Founder & CEO Nirav Tolia

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I Had To Save Nextdoor | Co-Founder & CEO Nirav Tolia