'I am prepared to work for $1 until we are profitable'
The executive who became globally infamous for laying off 900 employees during a three-minute Zoom call in 2021 is offering to work for $1 a year as part of a campaign to reclaim the CEO role at the company he founded after being ousted on 3 August.
Vishal Garg was replaced as chief executive of Better Home & Finance with hedge fund manager Daniel Lewis appointed as interim CEO in his place.
But Garg is not going quietly. In a letter delivered to the board on 10 August, he demanded that all directors except himself, Michael Farello and Hugh Frater resign.
The former CEO said in a media release that he secured signed declarations from shareholders representing a majority of the company's voting power. He has also retained Alex Spiro, partner at Quinn Emanuel, to represent him in the shareholder action.
"Better is at an inflection point," Garg said in the statement.
"We spent years rebuilding this company around technology, dramatically lowering the cost to originate a mortgage and putting Better in a position to scale. I am prepared to work for $1 until we are profitable, invest another $30 million alongside shareholders and finish the turnaround we started."
Garg's new proposal
Under his proposal, Garg would also oversee a $30 million stock buyback and invest $5 million personally in the company.
He also vowed to initiate an independent search for a permanent long-term CEO, after which he would transition to a chairman or chief product and innovation officer role.
Garg's push comes amid a sharp deterioration in Better's share price since Lewis took the helm. CNN reported that the stock has fallen 45% since Lewis assumed the CEO role, on top of a 16% decline earlier in the year before Garg's departure was announced.
Speaking to CNN, Garg expressed confidence that the company had been on the verge of a significant operational turnaround.
After Better's core refinancing business collapsed following the pandemic-era boom, with annual sales falling from $1.5 billion in 2021 to $70 million in 2023, Garg said the company had clawed its way back, driven largely by artificial intelligence.
"We're winning. We've tripled loan volume. We're close to profitability," he told CNN. "We were at the five-yard line after taking the ball all the way down the field from the other side."
Better deployed AI models capable of processing mortgages in a fraction of the time traditionally required, and partnered with Neo Home Loans to halve loan origination costs.
The company also attracted technology partnerships with Intuit, Coinbase, and OpenAI this year to support mortgage services, and expanded its home equity line of credit business. Funded loan volume grew from approximately $600 million in Q1 2024 to $1.67 billion in Q2 2026, according to Garg's shareholder letter.
Garg's tenure has not been without fault, following the 2021 Zoom layoffs that triggered widespread criticism, a leave of absence, a whistleblower lawsuit, and an SEC investigation, though both the lawsuit and investigation were ultimately dropped or closed without action.
"It's an acknowledgment that I've been doing this for 10 years, but execution hasn't been perfect," he told CNN. "I hope it gets resolved. I think the future still remains very bright for Better."
Garg also levelled pointed criticism at Lewis, whom he accused of concealing his ambitions when seeking a board seat months earlier.
"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."
Better Home & Finance and Lewis did not respond to CNN's request for comment. Garg said that if the board declined to act on his demands voluntarily, he and supporting shareholders are prepared to call a special meeting of stockholders.
