All about Vishal Garg, Better.com CEO who laid off 900 in Zoom shocker

Vishal Garg, founder of Better.com (Image credit: LinkedIn)

Vishal Garg is the founder and CEO of digital-first homeownership company Better.com. He made headlines recently when he fired 900 employees at the same time over a Zoom call.

A video of the call recorded and circulated by an employee has him saying: "This isn't news that you're going to want to hear. If you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off. Your employment here is terminated effective immediately."

Garg, also the founding partner of investment holding company One Zero Capital, listed several reasons for his decision. “This is the second time in my career I’m doing this and I do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried. This time, I hope to be stronger. We are laying off about 15 per cent of the company for a number of reasons — the market, efficiency and performances and productivity,” he explained to his employees during the Zoom call, a video of which is now viral.

In 2020, Garg made headlines for sending an extremely rude email to his team, where he equated them to "dumb dolphins".

“HELLO — WAKE UP BETTER TEAM... You are TOO DAMN SLOW. You are a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS and…DUMB DOLPHINS get caught in nets and eaten by sharks. SO STOP IT. STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME," read his email.

In its aftermath, Forbes labelled Garg as the "archetypal tech CEO: brilliant, brash and mercurial. Though his outbursts have caused headaches for some staffers, and forced others to quit".