GoKawiilIn context: Vishal Garg, the Better Home & Finance founder whose 2021 video-call firing of 900 employees became a symbol of the company's turmoil, is trying to reclaim the CEO job just as Better bets its recovery on AI-driven mortgage processing. Garg says the board removed him at a pivotal moment, when the company's automation tools were starting to lift loan volume and push the lender closer to profitability.
Garg was replaced earlier this month by Daniel Lewis, a hedge fund manager who joined Better's board on July 27. Garg said Lewis had been advising him for about six months before taking the board seat, offering ideas on cost reductions and profitability.
Garg said Lewis then persuaded Better's directors to remove him and install Lewis as CEO roughly a week after he joined the board.
"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."
Lewis wrote on X on Aug. 4: "There was never a $BETR without @vishal_better. That demands respect." That tweet is no longer available on X.
Better and Lewis did not respond to a request for comment.
– Coby Hakalir (@360coby) August 17, 2026
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Garg said he accepts that Better's treatment of workers under his leadership damaged the company's standing. The 2021 mass layoff, delivered during a Zoom meeting shortly before the holidays, led to widespread criticism and was followed by a leave of absence. Better later faced a whistleblower lawsuit that was dropped, an SEC investigation that resulted in no action, and a 2023 SPAC merger that preceded a 93% decline in the company's stock.
Still, Garg said the board change came as Better's technology strategy was showing progress.
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