Remember that Guy Who Fired 900 People on a Zoom Call?

He has taken a leave of absence from Better.com.

Given his history, I think that it is safe to say that he was pushed, because this guy has no shame.

As an aside, whenever he hear of some sort of tech firm treating their atrociously, it always seems that Softbank is a major investor.  (Perhaps this is a central part of their investing strategy?)

Looks like Better.com CEO Vishal Garg’s behavior is catching up to him.

This morning, employees were notified via email by the Better board of directors that Garg would be taking time off effective immediately after the “very regrettable events over the last week.”

The move came, according to an employee who wished not to be named, after the digital mortgage company hired a crisis firm earlier this week. For those of us following the drama over the past week — over the past year, really — it was not a surprise.

More details around the executive’s behavior have emerged, including in emails that surfaced this week in which Garg berated his own investors, Vice reported. He already had a reputation for using abusive language in emails to employees, but the treatment toward his investors was yet another shock.

In the email to employees sent this morning, the board said that during the interim period, CFO Kevin Ryan would be assuming the responsibilities of CEO. It also acknowledged that it had engaged “an independent 3rd party firm to do a leadership and cultural assessment,” the results of which would be “taken into account to build a long-term sustainable and positive culture at Better.”

………

The pressure seemingly intensified over the past few months as the company took a hit when the number of refinancings declined.

“It wasn’t a shock that the market had turned on us,” the employee said. “But the model’s predictions were that it wouldn’t happen this quickly. There just seemed to be more underlying anxiety after the SoftBank investment over the summer and with the SPAC approaching. But they could have been more transparent and just admit they overhired people last year.”

The company laid off 9% of its staff last week, one day after receiving a $750 million cash infusion as part of an amended SPAC agreement. While it was not the first (or likely the last) company to lay off workers via Zoom in this pandemic era, the way it was handled seemed to offend even casual observers.

………

In mid-November, HousingWire reported on preliminary results published by Better’s SPAC partner, Aurora Acquisition Corp., revealing that the digital lender expected a net loss between $85 million and $100 million in the third quarter. And the forecast looked even worse for the fourth quarter, according to an S-4 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

………

This is after a year in which Garg received a $25 million cash bonus: “In 2020, after previously requesting an equity-based award, our CEO was paid a one-time discretionary bonus of $25.0 million as determined by the Board based on his 2020 performance,” the S4 filing said.

Guys like this always make out, no matter how badly the f%$# up and no matter who they hurt.

The venture capitalists eat this up, because it makes the companies look like they are running a tight ship, which gives said VCs time to go public, and then dump the stock on their latest flock of pigeons.