Michael Kiernan
About Michael Kiernan
Michael Kiernan, age 40, is Nextdoor’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) since January 2025, after leading Global Revenue (Apr 2024–Jan 2025) and earlier roles over sales and business operations since 2018; he previously served as Chief of Staff, Global Revenue & Partnerships at X (Twitter) and held leadership roles at Turn, Yahoo!, and BrightRoll. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo . Company performance context relevant to the CRO mandate: 2024 revenue was $247.3M and cash and equivalents were $427M with zero debt ; Q3 2025 revenue reached $69M (+5% YoY) with positive adjusted EBITDA of $4M and self-serve ads about 60% of revenue .
Past Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Strategic Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nextdoor | Chief Revenue Officer | Jan 2025–present | Leads global revenue, sales/account management/ad ops; expanding Nextdoor Ads Platform |
| Nextdoor | Head of Global Revenue | Apr 2024–Jan 2025 | Scaled revenue organization during platform transformation |
| Nextdoor | Head of Sales, Ads Manager | Nov 2021–Apr 2024 | Led rollout of self-serve ads platform |
| Nextdoor | Head of Sales, Ads Manager | Jul 2020–Nov 2021 | Grew new/self-serve advertisers |
| Nextdoor | Head of Business Operations | Apr 2018–Jul 2020 | Built data-driven operating cadence |
| X (Twitter) | Chief of Staff, Global Revenue & Partnerships | Nov 2017–Apr 2018 | Supported global revenue partnerships strategy |
External Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Strategic Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yahoo! | Leadership roles | — | Ad-tech and GTM leadership experience |
| BrightRoll | Leadership roles | — | Video ad platform commercialization |
| Turn | Leadership roles | — | DSP/data-driven advertising execution |
Performance Compensation
Sales leadership variable compensation precedent (Head of Revenue, 2024) — useful for CRO pay-for-performance benchmarking:
| Metric | Period | Target | Actual | Achievement (%) | Payout ($) | Vesting/Timing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Q1 2024 | $52.5M | Achieved 101% of quarterly target | 101% | $75,923 | Quarterly evaluation |
| Revenue | Q2 2024 (proration) | $60.4M (full-quarter target) | Employed 38 days in Q2 | — | $31,319 (prorated) | Prorated upon departure |
| Revenue | FY 2024 | $245.0M | Company FY revenue $247.3M | — | Annual commission framework (CRO predecessor plan) | Annual true-up |
Notes:
- The company’s executive compensation policies explicitly include a variable incentive component for the Head of Revenue role (predecessor to CRO), tying cash incentives to revenue performance; executives trade via Rule 10b5-1 plans and comply with a Compensation Recovery Policy .
Equity Ownership & Alignment
- Stock ownership guidelines: CEO 5x base salary; other executive officers 1x base salary. Compliance expected within the latest of five years from becoming covered/promotion or by January 1, 2030; until compliant, executives must retain 100% of net-after-tax shares upon vesting/exercise .
- Hedging prohibited; pledging only permitted in limited, approved circumstances by the Chief Legal Officer (no broad pledging allowed) .
- Compensation Recovery Policy (clawback) applicable to executive officers for restatements, in line with SEC/NYSE rules .
- Beneficial ownership: Michael Kiernan’s individual holdings were not itemized in the March 31, 2025 beneficial ownership table; only certain executives/directors are listed there –. Form 4 transaction-level data could not be retrieved via our insider-trades tool during this session; rely on future proxy/SEC filings for updated ownership and transactions.
Employment Terms
Standard executive officer Change-in-Control (CIC) and severance framework (applies to executive officers; individual agreements vary):
- Non-CIC qualifying termination (without cause/for good reason): lump-sum cash equal to six months’ base salary; up to six months of employer-paid COBRA premiums .
- CIC qualifying termination (three months pre-signed CIC agreement or within 12 months post-CIC): lump-sum cash equal to 12 months’ base salary plus then-current target bonus at 100%; full acceleration of time-based equity; performance-based equity vests at greater of actual achieved or target; up to 12 months employer-paid COBRA premiums –.
- Agreements auto-renew in three-year periods unless non-renewal notice is given; benefits supersede prior severance/vesting arrangements .
Vesting mechanics:
- Time-based RSUs accelerate in full under CIC qualifying termination; PSUs accelerate at greater of actual or target in CIC termination, subject to award terms .
Governance and Shareholder Feedback
- Say-on-pay approval: approximately 99% “FOR” at the 2024 annual meeting, informing pay design continuity .
- Compensation peer group used for 2024 benchmarking included: Amplitude, Braze, Bumble, Eventbrite, EverQuote, Groupon, Hims & Hers Health, Lemonade, NerdWallet, Olo, PagerDuty, PubMatic, Sprout Social, The RealReal, Tripadvisor, Upwork, Vimeo, Yelp, ZipRecruiter .
Execution Context and Platform/Revenue Levers
- Self-serve ads revenue grew 33% YoY in Q3 2025 and comprised ~60% of total revenue; advertisers saw higher CTR and lower CPC, supported by ad stack investments and planned new formats and deeper AI integration .
- Programmatic: supply-side platform integration completed earlier in 2025; testing with DSPs ongoing; off-platform deal with Yahoo enables targeting Nextdoor audiences via Yahoo’s DSP .
- Content strategy supporting monetization: ~4,000 publishers feeding news content; focus shifting to scaling user-generated content and neighbor recommendations to deepen engagement .
Investment Implications
- Alignment: Executive stock ownership guidelines, anti-hedging/limited pledging, mandatory Rule 10b5-1 trading, and clawback policy support shareholder alignment and mitigate governance risk .
- Retention risk: Double-trigger CIC protection with full time-based vesting and target-level PSU treatment reduces flight risk; non-CIC severance is modest (six months salary), balancing retention and cost discipline .
- Compensation-performance linkage: Precedent sales leader plan ties cash incentives to revenue attainment, consistent with CRO accountability for top-line growth; ongoing improvements in self-serve/programmatic monetization provide measurable levers for performance-based pay outcomes .
- Trading signals: Without accessible Form 4 data for Kiernan, near-term insider selling/buying pressure cannot be assessed; monitor future Form 4s and proxy ownership tables for vesting-related disposals and post-transaction holdings.
Sources: Nextdoor 2025 Proxy Statement (DEF 14A) –; Q3 2025 earnings call transcript ; Press release appointing Michael Kiernan as CRO .