Vishal Garg, the Indian-origin CEO who became widely known after dismissing around 900 employees during a Zoom call in 2021, has now been ousted from his own company. Garg was removed as CEO of Better Home & Finance on August 3, with hedge fund manager Daniel Lewis taking over the position only days after joining the company’s board.
The abrupt change has left Garg angry and feeling betrayed. According to Garg, Lewis had approached him months earlier with suggestions for cutting costs and improving Better’s financial position. Garg said he trusted Lewis enough to offer him a seat on the board, only for Lewis to allegedly convince other directors to remove him as CEO.
“He hoodwinked me,” Garg told CNN. He claimed Lewis had expressed support for the company’s strategy, praised Better on X and used those actions to secure a board position and gain the confidence of its leadership.
Garg’s departure comes after several difficult years for Better. The company experienced a dramatic rise in valuation during the pandemic, when mortgage refinancing surged and interest rates dropped below 3%. At one point, Better was valued at around $8 billion.
However, the boom faded as mortgage rates climbed towards 7%, causing refinancing activity to collapse and severely affecting Better’s business. Its annual sales fell from approximately $1.5 billion in 2021 to only about $70 million in 2023. The company’s market value has since dropped to roughly $300 million.
Better also went through a series of controversies during Garg’s tenure. The 2021 Zoom layoffs became a major setback for the company and led Garg to take a leave of absence. Better later faced a whistleblower lawsuit, an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and a troubled 2023 SPAC merger that caused its stock to plunge by 93%.
Despite the company’s turbulent history, Garg believes he had finally managed to put Better on a recovery path.
He said the company had begun using artificial intelligence to accelerate mortgage processing, replacing tasks that previously required dozens of employees and several days to complete.
Better also partnered with Neo Home Loans, which Garg claims helped double productivity and cut loan origination costs by 50%.
The strategy reportedly attracted major companies. Garg said Intuit, Coinbase and OpenAI partnered with Better this year to support mortgage-related services.
He also claimed that Better’s loan volume had tripled and that the company was approaching profitability.
“We’re winning. We’ve tripled loan volume. We’re close to profitability,” Garg said. He compared the company’s position to reaching the “5-yard line” after moving the ball across the field.
Lewis and the board, however, appeared to have a different assessment of the company’s situation.
Lewis joined Better’s board on July 27. Just one week later, Garg was removed as CEO and Lewis was appointed as his replacement.
Garg believes Lewis may have been preparing for the top position from the beginning.
“I suspect he always wanted to become CEO,” Garg said, adding that he believed the board had made a mistake.
Garg is now attempting to regain his position. He said several investors reached out after his removal and encouraged him to return.
He also holds Class B shares that carry special voting rights and has hired prominent lawyer Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel to represent him.
Garg has asked the board to reinstate him and said he would even be prepared 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.
He added that he hoped the dispute could be resolved and remained optimistic about Better’s future.
