Vishal Garg, the CEO of digital mortgage company Better Homes & Finances, became infamous after firing 900 employees over a Zoom call in 2021.
Now, netizens are celebrating after he was ousted from his position on Monday, August 3.
“Karma is a queen,” an x user said, while another remarked, "He got the taste of his own medicine."
He was replaced by hedge fund manager Daniel Lewis, who had joined the company’s board just a week earlier — a move that left Garg furious.
Highlights
- Vishal Garg was ousted as CEO of Better Homes & Finance after firing 900 employees over a Zoom call.
- The company accused Garg of referring to his staff as “mortgage monkeys."
- The CEO made use of AI models to improve the company’s finances.
Vishal Garg pushed for employees to be replaced by AI models
Better Homes & Finance had faced numerous setbacks over the years under Garg’s leadership, aside from the infamous mass layoff.
While the firm was valued at $8 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is now worth only around $300 million.
Despite those challenges, Garg said in an interview with CNN on August 14 that the company’s fortunes were turning around.
While sales fell from $1.5 billion in 2021 to $70 million in 2023, Better is on pace to generate $200 million in sales this year.
That growth was partly driven by the company’s AI models, which it uses to process mortgages more quickly — a task Garg said would have taken dozens of employees several days to complete just a few years ago.
“We are 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.”
Despite his efforts, Garg said he believes Lewis convinced the board members to remove him and make him the interim CEO.
“It’s not about me. I care about delivering savings to people and helping them live the American Dream. So when shareholders said, ‘You need to take a back seat,’ I complied.”
Garg’s assessment of the situation is supported by the company’s stock performance, which has fallen 45% since Lewis took charge.
Garg wrote to the board demanding his reinstatement, but the company sued him
In a letter sent to Better Homes’ board on August 10, Garg called for the immediate resignation of all board members.
He also claimed he had formed a “group of concerned shareholders” to help bring him back as CEO, according to a complaint the company filed in the Southern District of New York on August 18.
The company alleged that Garg sought support from shareholders through press releases, text messages, social media posts and a Bloomberg interview he gave on August 14.
During the interview, the company said Garg falsely claimed he had already “corralled 52%” of the shareholder vote.
Garg claimed to have done so without filing the required documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Better Homes accused Garg of violating two federal securities laws by “cultivating a coalition of shareholders” and “flooding the market with misleading statements.”
The company has asked the court to invalidate any shareholder approvals Garg obtained and bar him from seeking further shareholder support for at least 30 days.
Netizens celebrated Garg’s ousting, citing derogatory remarks he made about employees
The lawsuit filed by Better Homes alleges that Garg referred to his employees as “dumb dolphins” who were embarrassing him.
It also stated that he called them “mortgage monkeys.”
These remarks, coupled with his decision to lay off hundreds of employees shortly before Christmas five years ago, fueled outrage among netizens.
“What goes around comes around,” one person wrote.
A second suggested that being “hard-nosed” does little good for a company, while “being good to your people” brings long-term success.
“Wondering if he will put the ‘open to work’ banner on his LinkedIn profile,” joked a third.
“I am playing him the tiniest violin,” another added.
Placed on leave after the Zoom firing fiasco, Garg was found to have set a toxic “tone at the top”
In the immediate aftermath of the December 2021 mass firing, Better.com’s board placed Garg on leave pending an internal review.
During the Zoom call and in subsequent messages, Garg characterized those laid off as “lazy,” accusing them of working only about two hours a day and “stealing” from colleagues and clients.
The investigation, completed in 2022, concluded that Garg had failed to set an appropriate “tone at the top,” contributing to a culture of intimidation and fear of retaliation while weakening internal controls.
Company leaders said this environment made Better less effective than rivals at converting potential customers and damaged morale.
“Not feeling sorry for him,” an X user said.
Netizens continued trolling Vishal Garg over his ousting
