NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
New York, NY, August 17, 2026: Entrepreneur Vishal Garg, who became a symbol of corporate ruthlessness after laying off about 900 employees in a brief Zoom call in 2021, has now found himself on the other side of a high-profile firing.
Garg, founder of digital mortgage lender Better Home & Finance, was ousted as chief executive earlier this month and replaced by board member and hedge fund manager Daniel Lewis. Garg is now fighting to regain control of the company he founded, setting off an escalating boardroom battle.
Better initially described the August 3 leadership change in markedly less contentious terms. The company announced that Lewis had been appointed interim CEO effective immediately and said Garg had “mutually agreed with the Board to transition” from the chief executive role.
But subsequent developments have revealed a far more acrimonious split.
Garg has accused Lewis of winning his confidence before helping engineer his removal. Lewis had joined Better’s board only days earlier, on July 27, after approaching Garg months ago with ideas about cutting costs and improving profitability, according to Garg’s account.
“He hoodwinked me,” Garg said, alleging that Lewis had publicly praised Better’s strategy and used that relationship to gain the confidence of Garg and the board. Better and Lewis did not respond to requests for comment cited in reports carrying Garg’s allegations.
The board has offered a sharply different assessment.
Reports citing a termination letter say directors, excluding Garg, voted unanimously to remove him amid concerns about his “judgment, temperament and credibility.” The dispute reportedly intensified over the company’s quarterly financial filings and Garg’s efforts to remove several directors.
The board has also pointed to Better’s financial performance under Garg. The company has accumulated more than $1.5 billion in losses since 2022, while its stock has lost more than 90 percent of its value, according to reports.
Garg, however, maintains that the company was nearing a turnaround when he was pushed out. He has argued that loan volume had risen sharply and that Better was moving toward profitability.
The ousted founder is not quietly walking away.
Garg has retained prominent attorney Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel and is seeking to return to the company. A group of dissident shareholders representing about 52 percent of Better’s voting power is reportedly seeking to remove Lewis and five other directors, potentially paving the way for Garg’s return.
Garg has reportedly even offered to work for an annual salary of $1 until the company becomes profitable.
The bitter leadership struggle comes nearly five years after Garg became internationally notorious for the way he handled another firing.
In December 2021, Garg summoned roughly 900 Better.com employees to a Zoom meeting shortly before the Christmas holidays and informed them they were being laid off.
“If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off,” Garg told employees during the call, which was recorded and circulated widely online.
The mass firing and its abrupt delivery sparked international criticism and made Garg one of the most recognizable faces of the pandemic-era technology layoffs. He later apologized for the manner in which he handled the dismissals.
Now, the man whose firing of hundreds of workers became a cautionary tale about corporate leadership is fighting a termination of his own.
Whether Garg succeeds could ultimately depend less on the board that removed him than on Better’s shareholders. If the shareholder group backing him has the voting power it claims, the August ouster may be only the opening round in a much larger fight over who controls the company Garg founded.
Cover photo by Scott Rosenthal, Wikimedia.
