According to a report published by The Metro in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, Vishal Garg, the founder and former chief executive of financial technology company Better, has reportedly been removed from his leadership role. He was replaced by hedge fund manager Daniel Lewis, who joined Better’s board only about a week before being appointed interim CEO. The rapid transition has prompted questions about how Lewis gained the confidence of the company’s directors and shareholders so quickly.
Garg became internationally known in 2021 after dismissing approximately 900 employees during a Zoom meeting held only weeks before Christmas. He has now accused Lewis of “hoodwinking” him, arguing that his successor cultivated support within the company before using his board position to obtain the top executive job.
Garg was reportedly ousted as CEO on August 3. In an interview with CNN, he alleged that Lewis had publicly praised Better’s business strategy and promoted the company on X before joining the board. Garg believes those actions helped Lewis establish credibility with shareholders and directors, ultimately strengthening his position when the board considered a change in leadership.
Better faced substantial challenges during Garg’s tenure. The company endured intense negative publicity after the mass layoffs, while its reported sales declined sharply—from approximately $1.5 billion in 2021 to about $70 million in 2023. Garg nevertheless maintained that Better’s performance had begun to improve. He said the company was on track to produce $200 million in sales during the current year, suggesting that the business was recovering despite its earlier setbacks.
Garg also claimed that Better had tripled its loan volume and was nearing profitability. Although he objected to the board’s decision, he said he accepted the shareholders’ choice to have him step aside because his main objective was to help the company succeed and make homeownership more accessible and affordable. His comments indicate that he viewed a leadership change as acceptable if it ultimately improved Better’s prospects.
The former CEO nonetheless said he believed Lewis may have wanted the chief executive position from the outset. Garg argued that the board had made a serious error by removing him and later sent directors a letter demanding that he be reinstated. He has also retained legal counsel to represent him in the dispute.
Garg reportedly offered to return as CEO for an annual salary of only $1 until Better became profitable. Under his proposal, he would resign after the company reached that milestone. He acknowledged that, although he had spent a decade building Better, the company’s execution had not always been flawless. Even so, he expressed confidence that the business could recover and achieve long-term success.
Better has responded with legal action. The company filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that Garg violated two federal securities laws by attempting to rally shareholders behind his reinstatement and making misleading statements while seeking to regain control of the company. According to Forbes, Better’s board voted unanimously to remove him. The board reportedly cited net losses exceeding $1.5 billion since 2022, along with a decline of more than 90% in the company’s share price, as major reasons for the decision.
Garg first drew widespread public attention five years ago when he announced the immediate termination of roughly 900 Better employees during a Zoom call. During the meeting, he said the decision was not something he wanted to make and recalled that he had cried during an earlier round of layoffs. The timing, just before Christmas, intensified criticism of the announcement and raised concerns about the way the dismissals were handled.
At the time, Garg defended the layoffs as necessary to protect Better, which had been valued at approximately $7 billion, from a potentially severe financial crisis. In a later blog post, he claimed that at least 250 of the dismissed employees had been working only about two hours per day while reporting eight or more hours through the company’s payroll system. He accused those workers of exploiting Better and its customers, though he later acknowledged that he could have expressed those allegations more carefully and appropriately.
Following the 2021 layoffs, Garg was asked to take a leave of absence but was later reinstated. Better’s then-chief financial officer, Kevin Ryan, said that carrying out the workforce reduction had been extremely difficult, especially so close to the holiday season. However, Ryan argued that reducing staff and improving the company’s financial position would help Better compete more effectively in a rapidly changing housing market, where economic conditions, interest rates, and consumer demand were creating additional pressure on real estate and mortgage businesses.
Discover more from Headline Hub
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
