CEO who fired 900 on Zoom before Christmas wants his job back
CEO who fired 900 people on Zoom just before Christmas wants his job back
Vishal Garg, ousted CEO of Better Home & Finance, claims he was duped by his successor Daniel Lewis, who he says praised the company to gain a board seat and then orchestrated his removal. Garg, known for laying off 900 employees via Zoom in 2021, argues he was on the verge of a turnaround, with sales projected to triple and partnerships with Intuit, Coinbase, and OpenAI. He has secured majority shareholder support and hired high-profile lawyer Alex Spiro to demand reinstatement, offering to work for $1 a year until profitability.
“It’s so much easier when we’re this close for someone to come in and say that they could have done better.”
- catgary
> Garg acknowledges he’s “hard-nosed” and the famous Zoom layoffs severely damaged the company’s reputation — a mistake he knows will continue to haunt him.
I really hope Garg is here reading this. It’s not just a mistake that will continue to haunt him, it’s all he’s ever going to be. It’s how he was introduced in this headline. It’s how he’ll be referred to when he starts his next venture. If newspapers publish his obituary someday, it’ll be in the first few sentences explaining why anyone knows his name.
- xyzelement
Former employee (though not part of that famous round of layoff)
The noise around Zoom firing was ridiculous. We were a largely remote company with most people having never been to the office (I don't think I had, at that moment) so how exactly do you lay off people except remotely? VG didn't do a great job there but the idea of doing it remotely being evil or whatever was ridiculous - should the people be flown in to NY just to get fired?
Overall I find VG a flawed but reasonable dude. He definitely put his ass on the line for the business, was generous with equity - and was a pretty engaged leader. I don't think much about my time at Better but it was fine.
- jazzpush2
You read this from the outside and ask yourself, "how does this guy sleep at night?". He sleeps fine, of course, justifying his own actions/behaviors without thinking of others.
Luigi Mangione spent months trying to contact someone at United Healthcare to no avail. Only when he pretended to be an investor managing a large number of assets did he hear a response.
- tolugenius
> Garg acknowledges he’s “hard-nosed” and the famous Zoom layoffs severely damaged the company’s reputation — a mistake he knows will continue to haunt him. But as criticized as Garg has been for placing near-impossible demands on the company and its employees, he said Lewis convinced the board he didn’t push hard enough.
> So when shareholders said, ‘You need to take a back seat,’ I complied.”
Man shocked to learn the evolution of shareholder value did not, in fact value him.
- mrhottakes
Leopard who eats faces surprised to find out other leopard ate his face.