Vishal Garg will no longer lead Better, the company has announced. 

The founder and former CEO was replaced Monday, days before the company is scheduled to post its second quarter results. Newly tapped board member Daniel Lewis, a hedge fund boss, will replace Garg as CEO on an interim basis immediately, the company said in a press release. 

Garg mutually agreed with the board to transition out and will remain on the company's board. Harit Talwar, the chairman of the board, lauded Garg's achievements including the company's development of its Tinman origination platform.  

"On behalf of the entire Board, we thank Vishal for his significant contributions to the Company in his role as CEO and look forward to continuing to work with him and benefitting from his expertise as director," said Talwar. 

The chairman said Lewis, founder and CEO of Orange Capital, has worked with Better in the past few months on management and cost reductions and strategic planning as an independent advisor. "During that time he has provided valuable insights and direction, bringing highly relevant operational and capital markets experience," Talwar said of Lewis. 

Garg also shared a statement highlighting Better's growth and complimenting Lewis' appointment.

"Better is at an important inflection point, and now is the right time for new leadership," said Garg in the release. "I have come to know Daniel quite well, and I am confident he is the right person to lead the company through this important time in its evolution."

Monday's press release did not describe severance pay for Garg, who made over $6 million in cash and equivalents last year and received over $20 million in stock awards. Lewis' compensation will be tied to his shareholder returns and long-term operating performance, the company said. 

Garg's run ends

The announcement ends a dramatic 11-year run for the competitive and controversial Garg, who led Better to explosive growth during the refinance boom earlier this decade. He may be most infamous for an ill-fated mass firing via Zoom in December 2021, a move that made national headlines, prompted internal backlash and resulted in his brief leave of absence in early 2022. 

Garg oversaw the company's massive downsizing as the industry responded to rising rates in 2022 and 2023. The company seemingly limped toward a long-overdue initial public offering in 2023, but has since rebounded. Better hasn't turned a profit as a public company under Garg, but some of its earnings metrics were showing growth as the lender began to report bigger quarterly origination figures. 

In the company's first quarter earnings, in which it posted a $70 million net loss, Garg told investors the lender would "cut costs deeper" to achieve its stated goal of breakeven adjusted EBITDA by the end of the third quarter. 

The company did not announce any other executive changes Monday. 

Tumultuous leadership

As a consumer-direct lender, Better was a massive beneficiary of the refinance boom, posting tens of billions of dollars in origination volume, rapid growth which led to its plans in 2021 to go public. The positive momentum came to a screeching halt on Dec. 1, 2021, when Garg laid off 900 employees in a 3-minute Zoom call. 

The move sparked widespread backlash both publicly and internally, and Garg took a leave of absence in early 2022. The CEO quickly returned to his post but then oversaw an enormous downsizing as the company shrank from over 10,000 employees to under 1,000 workers by the time of its 2023 IPO. 

The firm's ex-head of sales Sarah Pierce filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Better and Garg in 2022, accusing the company of misleading investors. That legal battle garnered some national headlines, before Pierce quietly dismissed her case in 2024. 

Always outspoken, Garg later acknowledged his personal and business struggles, suggesting the company's leaders "have been through war together" when Better finally debuted on Wall Street. The CEO showed some contrition for his past behavior in later public interviews, although he never stopped calling out his competitors. 

Better's financial struggles

Lewis inherits a company that has launched ambitious products and partnerships but still faces balance sheet troubles. 

In the past year the lender has announced some partnerships with companies including Stripe, Finance of America and OpenAI for its ChatGPT tool. It has also developed a burgeoning retail division and has posted over a billion dollars in origination volume in recent quarters. 

The company however has posted double-digit net losses in every quarter since its IPO, and is projecting another $30.6 million net loss for the second quarter, it said Monday. While the company expects to also post big annual gains in funded loan volume and revenue, it anticipates negative $14 million in adjusted EBITDA, according to its preliminary second quarter results.