{"id":653888,"date":"2026-08-18T12:19:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T12:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=653888"},"modified":"2026-08-18T12:19:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T12:19:51","slug":"remember-the-ceo-who-fired-900-people-on-zoom-now-the-tables-have-turned-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=653888","title":{"rendered":"Remember the CEO who fired 900 people on Zoom? Now the tables have turned"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A former Better Home & Finance CEO who laid off nearly 1,000 employees right before Christmas 2021 is now upset that he too has been axed.<\/p>\n

Former Better Home & Finance CEO Vishal Garg told CNN<\/a> that he was fired on Aug. 3 when the board voted to replace him with Daniel Lewis. The termination came about five years after Garg laid off 900 people in an online conference call just days prior to Christmas 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off,\u201d he said on the call. \u201cYour employment here is terminated effective immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen:<\/p>\n\n

The Christmas season terminations came as a shock to the affected employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I was safe,\u201d a former employee told NBC News<\/a> at the time. \u201cI had perfect reviews and thought I was an integral part of the team. It\u2019s a bummer, because I know I worked really hard to help build up that company, and it looks like I just wasted my time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The terminations also spurred anger, prompting Garg to issue an apology.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to apologize for the way I handled the layoffs last week,\u201d he wrote in an internal letter. \u201cI failed to show the appropriate amount of respect and appreciation for the individuals who were affected and for their contributions to Better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI realize that the way I communicated this news made a difficult situation worse. I am deeply sorry and am committed to learning from this situation and doing more to be the leader that you expect me to be,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

After the terminations, the company floundered for years courtesy of first a whistleblower investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, in addition to a rapid drop in sales and stockholder value.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the pandemic-fueled refinancing boom when mortgage rates were below 3%, the company held an $8 billion valuation,\u201d according to CNN. \u201cToday, with an imploded refi business and rates closing in on 7%, the AI mortgage company\u2019s market value stands at just $300 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years later, Garg has been given the axe, right as the company is on the verge of a turnaround that he claims he engineered. This year, for example, the company is estimated to earn $200 million in sales, up by $130 million from the paltry $70 million that was made in 2023.<\/p>\n

Garg reportedly bounced the company back by training AI models to quickly and efficiently process mortgages, thus bypassing the old-fashioned way of having several people process them over the course of days.<\/p>\n

He also had Better Home & Finance partner with Neo Home Loans. This led to a doubling of productivity and a reduction of costs. This partnership led to even more partnerships with\u00a0Intuit, Coinbase, and OpenAI.<\/p>\n

Garg says all this happened because of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re winning. We\u2019ve tripled loan volume. We\u2019re close to profitability,\u201d he boasted. \u201cWe were at the 5-yard line after taking the ball all the way down the field from the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why was he ousted? He blames his replacement, Daniel Lewis, for convincing the company\u2019s board that he hadn\u2019t pushed hard enough. The irony is that Lewis originally approached Garg months ago with ideas on how to improve the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis thoughts about cost savings were good,\u201d Garg admitted to CNN. \u201cHis ideas about innovation were not. It\u2019s so much easier when we\u2019re this close for someone to come in and say that they could have done better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, Lewis was brought onto the board on July 27. Within a week, he\u2019d convinced the board to drop Garg.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about me,\u201d Garg alleged to CNN. \u201cI care about delivering savings to people and helping them live the American Dream. So when shareholders said, \u2018You need to take a back seat,\u2019 I complied.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s his beef?<\/p>\n

Garg believes that Lewis pulled one over on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suspect he always wanted to become CEO,\u201d Garg said to CNN. \u201cThe board made a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been squabbling with Lewis on social media ever since his termination:<\/p>\n

\n

My response to the dumb allegations in the press release @danielsethlewis<\/a> sent out WITHOUT board authorization. #BUBKUS<\/a>. Yeah that\u2019s Boy Scout for FAKE NEWS. Sacre bleu Daniel, I think the French air is getting to you. Is that why you hired a $400k PR firm with the companies\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Vishal Garg (@vishal_better) August 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to CNN, he\u2019s hired a high-powered attorney who this Monday sent a letter to Better\u2019s board demanding he be reinstated.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former Better Home & Finance CEO who laid off nearly 1,000 employees right before Christmas 2021 is now upset that he too has been axed. Former Better Home & Finance CEO Vishal Garg told CNN that he was fired on Aug. 3 when the board voted to replace him with Daniel Lewis. The termination… Continue reading Remember the CEO who fired 900 people on Zoom? Now the tables have turned<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":653863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-653888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=653888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/653863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=653888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=653888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=653888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}