CEO of the company that fired 900 employees during Zoom call talks about ‘leadership lessons’

Better.com CEO Vishal Garg is known most for his infamous Zoom call in 2021 during which he fired over 900 employees. During the brutal call, he reportedly accused at least 250 terminated employees of stealing from the digital mortgage company by over-reporting their working hours. Garg is said to have later admitted to his remaining staffers that he had “blundered the execution” of the job cuts. But despite that since 2021, Better.com has laid off over 90% of its workforce.
In 2022, Better.com merged with SPAC Aurora Acquisition Corp. The combined entity is called Better Home & Finance Holding Company. The company recently made its public debut Thursday on Nasdaq Capital Market. On the occasion, Garg spoke to TechCrunch. He answered a number of questions including that infamous Zoom call.
What Vishal Garg said
While answering a question on how he has worked to rebuild trust within, and outside, the company, Garg replied. “A lot of leadership training. I think I was very mission-centric, customer centric, and really, really focused on what it took to drive growth. And I think I’ve learned now that in order for our customers to be delighted, our teammates also have to feel delight. So I’ve worked really, really hard to change the way that I show up to the team every day, and to be more empathetic and to treat them with the same level of kindness that I showed our customers.”
“And then the second thing is we’ve continued to innovate on our mission, which is to make homeownership more affordable and more accessible, and ultimately the 1,000 people that are at Better.com today are driven not just by me but really by our mission, which is to make homeownership more affordable and more accessible,” he added.