How Does A “Leaner, Hungrier Company” Lose $200M?

By now, the Zoom meeting in which Better.com’s Chief Executive Officer Vishal Garg laid off nearly a tenth of their work force has become the stuff of legend. But according to a newly leaked video by an anonymous Better.com employee, it appears the exploits of the embattled executive may have been even more upsetting than previously known.

“Today we acknowledge that we overhired, and hired the wrong people. And in doing that we failed,” Garg said during a meeting to the remaining Better.com staff in the wake of the fateful Zoom layoff session. “I was not disciplined over the past 18 months. We made $250 million last year, and you know what, we probably pissed away $200 million. We probably could have made more money last year and been leaner, meaner, and hungrier.”

Garg’s phrasing echoes the words he used when dismissing 9% of his team a few days earlier. While Garg went on to explain that the Better.com leadership made a strategic error in overly focusing on fundraising during this phase of the company’s lifespan, the executive’s tone in this admission seems to uphold the accusations of arrogance and mismanagement toward the head of the company that came in the wake of the layoffs.