• OpenWeb's board ousted the company's founder and CEO, Nadav Shoval, earlier this year.
• In his first interview since his removal, he said his situation is a cautionary tale for other founders.
• A legal battle between Shoval and OpenWeb is ongoing in an Israeli court.

Nadav Shoval says the conflict that culminated in his dramatic ouster from OpenWeb, the company he cofounded, started with a disagreement over a prospective BlackRock investment.

In his first interview since his removal as CEO, which is still playing out in court, Shoval told Business Insider that tensions with OpenWeb's board bubbled up when the company received "several term sheets" for further investment in mid-2024, including an offer from BlackRock.

OpenWeb, which provides tech to publishers to help manage the comment sections of their sites, create newsletters, and sell advertising, had previously raised $392 million and was last valued at $1.5 billion.

BlackRock's capital infusion, Shoval said, would have been a "game changer," allowing the company to make its fourth acquisition and advance toward an initial public offering. But it hit a roadblock.

"We brought in some of the best bankers in the world to support the process, and everybody was very excited until we started to see that one of the board members, specifically, one of the funds, was really pushing against taking this money," Shoval said, without naming the fund.

Two people familiar with the discussions said some board members had concerns about the conditions tied to BlackRock's proposed investment. They asked for anonymity to discuss private conversations. Their identities are known to BI.

BlackRock declined to comment.

OpenWeb's big-name investors include Insight Partners and Georgian Partners. It has also attracted investments from Samsung's Next investment group, The New York Times, and the famed NYU Stern professor and podcaster Scott Galloway, who sits on the company's board.

Shoval's relationship with his board of directors went rapidly downhill from there — and was thrust into public view.

Shoval's messy battle with the board goes public

Tensions boiled over in mid-2024 when OpenWeb's board changed Shoval's reporting line, a move he felt breached his contract. He sent an ultimatum to reverse the change to the board, which responded by firing him.

Then the company announced to staffers that Shoval would be replaced with an interim CEO, OpenWeb's former chair Tim Harvey.

Shoval went on a rampage.

Cut off from his business accounts, he used his personal Gmail to send a companywide email saying that he refused to step down.

He also took to LinkedIn, writing: "I do not accept these actions. I will continue to fight for OpenWeb's mission and purpose alongside our team."

Two former colleagues of Shoval and four people who have worked closely with him described him as a force of nature who's extremely passionate about the publishing industry. They said he could also be hotheaded and sometimes lacked the willingness to listen to others, including the board. They declined to be named to protect business relationships. Their identities are known to BI.

In October, Shoval sued OpenWeb and many of its board members in a Tel Aviv, Israel, court, alleging he had been the victim of an illegal boardroom coup enacted so investors could seize control of the company. His complaint argued that he should be reinstated as CEO and able to appoint two new board directors of his choosing.

The litigation is ongoing, and OpenWeb is seeking to have the case dismissed. BI has reviewed copies of some of the related court filings, translated from Hebrew to English.

In denying Shoval's claim for a temporary injunction against his firing, Ariel Zimmerman, the Tel Aviv judge presiding over that case, said the chances of Shoval succeeding in his claim for reinstatement as CEO "do not appear promising, to say the least."

In response to Shoval's suit, OpenWeb said in court filings that the case was a classic situation in which the board of directors had lost confidence in its CEO. OpenWeb said Shoval was trying to extract money that was not owed to him and that he had chosen to give up control of the company when he brought in investors.

In a statement to BI, a spokesperson for OpenWeb said the company was excited about the steps it had taken to set it up for long-term success.

"The company is moving forward without distractions, fully committed to the success of our employees, partners, and the broader community we serve," the statement said.

Shoval told BI he's optimistic that "justice will come" as he continues his legal fight. He said he hoped his story would serve as a lesson to other founders to vet the funds and directors they work with closely.

"No one wants to see the behind the scenes of restaurants," Shoval said. "This is what I feel like I've seen about the VC industry."

Shoval's path to the New York startup scene

Shoval said he's used to defying the odds.

He often describes how he came close to death when he was 2 years old from Kawasaki disease, a rare condition that causes swelling of the blood vessels and can lead to heart problems.

The disease, Shoval said, affected his motor skills, making it difficult to write. He later struggled with dyslexia and didn't finish high school.

After serving in the Israel Defense Forces' elite Maglan commando unit — famed for going behind enemy lines — he moved to New York City in 2012 at the age of 21. There he cofounded OpenWeb, then known as Spot.IM, alongside two other cofounders who have since left the company.

Shoval said he had noticed that publishers and content creators were "under massive threat" from Big Tech companies that wouldn't compensate them for their content.

The startup sought to build tech to keep people more engaged on publishers' websites. It began with the comment section, providing community-management tools and analytics to help make online conversations less toxic. It later acquired three other companies to help publishers in other areas, like advertising and newsletter building.

OpenWeb grew to more than 370 employees and says it reaches more than 150 million active monthly users across sites such as Fox News, CNN, and Yahoo.

Through secondary transactions, as OpenWeb raised more capital, Shoval diluted his stake in the company, leaving him with less than 2% of issued shares and a remaining 5% in unvested options, per OpenWeb's legal filings.

The sales, which OpenWeb calculated earned Shoval tens of millions of dollars, resulted in him ceding his control of the company to its investors.

The board calls Shoval's bluff

Shoval said in legal filings that OpenWeb's sudden decision in mid-2024 to change his reporting line was an illegal move that hindered his management capabilities and diminished his role. The board had decided he would start reporting to a newly appointed temporary executive chair, Omer Cygler, the managing partner of its investor Lion Investment. Shoval had previously reported to the entire board.

Furious, he sent a letter in September to the board demanding it reverse the decision.

OpenWeb's legal filing said Shoval's letter had also set out "excessive and baseless financial demands" amounting to tens of millions of dollars in exchange for his continued appointment as its chief executive. In an attachment to his letter, Shoval mapped out a scenario where he would resign as CEO and help with the search for a replacement until summer 2025, on the condition that the investors bought his shares and accelerated the vesting of his options.

The board called his bluff.

Board members convened an urgent telephone meeting in which the directors who attended, including those appointed by Shoval himself — Galloway and Cygler — unanimously voted for his dismissal.

In the statement to BI, OpenWeb said: "OpenWeb is laser-focused on continued growth and advancing our mission to foster healthier online discourse — creating a web that is safe for users, profitable for publishers, and fair for advertisers."

Shoval says his ousting is a cautionary tale for other startup founders

Looking forward, Shoval told BI he remained committed to fixing toxicity in online discourse and promoting independent journalism.

Shoval didn't start the company "for a small secondary," he said, referring to money he might have taken off the table were the company to raise a further investment round. "It's not a nonprofit. I'm here also for everybody to make money, but it's not the only reason why I started the business. I'm an extremely mission-driven person. I love what we do."

Shoval maintains that OpenWeb board meetings and decisions were conducted improperly and that he still has the right to appoint two new board directors of his choosing.

He said that he wanted to impart a lesson to other founders: There can be some occasions in startups when "there is inherent conflict between the fund and the founder."

After the huge investment boom of 2021 amid a stock-market rally and low interest rates, many startup valuations plunged in the following years, and IPO and M&A activity dramatically slowed.

"When those funds are successful, they act like a cheerleader," Shoval said. "They agree with you. They follow your strategy. As soon as market conditions change — and it really, really changed — some of those people change."