Vishal Garg, the Indian-origin CEO who became infamous after firing around 900 employees during a Zoom call in 2021, has now lost his own job. Garg was removed as CEO of Better Home & Finance on August 3, with hedge fund manager Daniel Lewis taking over the company just days after joining its board. The timing has left Garg angry and, according to him, betrayed. He says Lewis had approached him months earlier with ideas about reducing costs and improving the company’s finances. Garg claims he trusted Lewis enough to give him a board seat, only to see him persuade other directors to remove him from the top job.
“He hoodwinked me,” Garg told CNN. “He said he liked the company’s strategy. He praised us on X and used that to get on our board and win our confidences.”
Garg’s exit comes after a turbulent few years at Better. The company enjoyed a huge valuation during the pandemic, when mortgage refinancing was booming and interest rates had fallen below 3 per cent. Better was once valued at around $8 billion. But the boom did not last. As mortgage rates climbed towards 7 per cent, refinancing activity collapsed and Better’s business suffered. Its annual sales plunged from around $1.5 billion in 2021 to just $70 million in 2023. The company’s market value has since fallen to roughly $300 million.
The company also faced several controversies during Garg’s tenure. His 2021 Zoom layoffs became a major embarrassment, forcing him to take a leave of absence. Better later faced a whistleblower lawsuit, an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and a disastrous 2023 SPAC merger that sent its stock plunging 93 per cent.
Despite that history, Garg believes he was finally turning Better around. He says the company began using artificial intelligence to speed up mortgage processing, replacing work that could previously take dozens of employees several days. Better also partnered with Neo Home Loans, which Garg claims doubled productivity and reduced loan origination costs by 50 per cent.
The strategy attracted major names. Intuit, Coinbase and OpenAI partnered with Better this year to support their mortgage services, according to Garg. He also says the company’s loan volume has tripled and that it is now close to profitability.
“We’re winning. We’ve tripled loan volume. We’re close to profitability,” Garg said. “We were at the 5-yard line after taking the ball all the way down the field from the other side.”
But Lewis and the board apparently saw things differently. Lewis joined Better’s board on July 27. A week later, Garg was removed as CEO and Lewis was named his replacement. Garg believes Lewis had been positioning himself for the role all along.
“I suspect he always wanted to become CEO,” Garg said. “The board made a mistake.”
Garg is now fighting to get his job back. He says several investors have contacted him since his removal and urged him to return. He also has Class B shares with special voting powers and has hired high-profile lawyer Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel. Garg has asked the board to reinstate him and says he is willing to work for just $1 a year until Better becomes profitable.
“It’s an acknowledgment that I’ve been doing this for 10 years, but execution hasn’t been perfect,” Garg said. “I hope it gets resolved. I think the future still remains very bright for Better.”
– Ends
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