Better.com CEO Who Fired 900 Workers On Zoom Call Reinstalled

Vishal Garg, the CEO and founder of fintech company Better.com, who was placed on leave after conducting a mass layoff over a Zoom call and then derided the outgoing employees as “lazy,” is returning to the helm of the company. 

In an email to employees sent Tuesday, seen by Forbes, Better’s board of directors informed the workforce that it had met with Garg multiple times and that it was confident that Garg could continue to lead the company. 

“As you know, Better’s CEO Vishal Garg has been taking a break from his full-time duties to reflect on his leadership, reconnect with the values that make Better great and work closely with an executive coach,” the board wrote in its email. After discussions with Garg, “direct input from the independent culture review, and the announcement of the organizational changes above, Vishal will be resuming his full-time duties as CEO.”

The Board added that “We are confident that these changes will help build a stronger, fairer, better company that will position us for even greater success ahead.”  Better did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.

The move reflects a turnaround for the company, which is planning to go public in a SPAC deal at a valuation of $6.9 billion. In December, the day after announcing that the company had received a $750 million cash infusion from investors, including SoftBank, Garg drew controversy by firing 900 employees – or 9% of its workforce – on a Zoom call. Garg then went onto a social media platform to describe the employees as “lazy.” 

Garg’s remarks during the mass layoff led to an exodus of Better executives and a barrage of articles about the controversial CEO, including one dispute in which, according to an email obtained by Vice News, Garg described one of his investors as “sewage.” Those revelations followed reporting by Forbes in 2020 that documented Garg’s history of poor treatment of employees – including calling them “dumb dolphins” in an email – and lawsuits that accuse companies he controls of fraud and misleading investors. (A Better.com spokesperson responded at the time that “Lawsuits are an unfortunate fact of life for successful startups and their CEOs.”)

Despite apologizing for his comments during the mass layoff, Garg was placed on leave a week later. In an email to employees at the time, Better’s general counsel described Garg’s actions as “regrettable events” and told employees that “We have much work to do and we hope that everyone can refocus on our customer and support each other to continue to build a great company and a company we can all be proud of.”

The Daily Beast first reported the company memo.