Who is Vishal Garg, who fired 900 employees over Zoom?
Vishal Garg is all over the internet. The Indian-born Better.com chief executive is garnering reactions from around the world after he fired some 900 employees over a Zoom call last week. The fateful call was recorded by one of his employees at Better Mortgage, a homeownership company based in the United States. But who is this man at the center of the controversy?
"If you are on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off. Your employment here is being terminated, effective immediately," Garg said during the three-minute-long call. He cited several reasons for the decision, including market condition, performance, and productivity. He also revealed it was the second time in his career he was ordering a mass firing.
Garg was seven years old when he moved from India to New York with his family. He later enrolled in New York University to study finance and international business. In 2000, he launched a student loan company called MyRichUncle with a friend. The firm went public in 2005 and was acquired by Merrill Lynch which has later been acquired by the Bank of America.
Garg is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Better, a mortgage and homeownership company started in 2014. It is backed by investors including SoftBank, L Catterton, Kleiner Perkins, Goldman Sachs, Ally Bank, American Express, and Citi, among others. He is also the founding partner of One Zero Capital, an investment holding company, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Those who were fired include employees mainly from India and the United States. The layoffs came soon after Better Mortgage raised $750 million in fresh capital from two of its backers, including SoftBank.
Garg is not new to controversies. He had earlier accused employees of "stealing" from their colleagues and customers by being unproductive, according to a Fortune report. Separately, in an email accessed by Forbes, he had told staff members, "You are TOO DAMN SLOW. You are a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS... SO STOP IT. STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME (sic)."
