This CEO Just Fired 900 Employees Live on Zoom...

Shaan Puri

Emergency, emergency podcast! I had to do this. I saw this video the other day while scrolling through TikTok late into the night, as I do. I couldn't believe it! I almost got out of bed right then to come record this, but we're doing it now. Okay, this is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. This guy is going to be skewered for this; that's my prediction. He might get fired for this, but he is definitely going to get wrecked on all of social media for it. Let's just listen to this. This is the CEO of a company called Better.com. They've raised, like, I don't know, $750 million. It's a big company; they do mortgages or some stuff like that on the internet. So here's the CEO. Let's just take a listen.

Vishal Garg

hi everyone thank you for joining

Shaan Puri

already looks like a funeral

Vishal Garg

I come to you with not great news. The market has changed, as you know, and we have to move with it in order to survive. Hopefully, we can continue to thrive.

Shaan Puri

Okay, the market has moved. The market has moved. What are you talking about? You have all your employees on a Zoom call right now. Obviously, you have some... quote, not great news to share. **Lesson number 1:** By the way, how does this guy become a CEO for such a big company and not know rule number 1? If you're letting someone go or you're laying them off, when you go into the meeting, you gotta rip the band-aid off in the first minute. The first three things you say, one of them has to be, "We're going to be letting you go today." Then you start to explain everything. When you do this long-winded build-up, people are a) confused and b) they get really pissed off. It's just self-serving. You're trying to buffer the blow; you're trying to prevent the blow from hitting you. You can't even say it. You're not even willing to say it. It's so ridiculous. Okay, so the market has moved, and we have to move with it so we can survive. What is it? Are you shutting down the company? What's going on?

Vishal Garg

deliver on a mission deliver on

Shaan Puri

a mission what mission

Vishal Garg

This is news you're going to want to hear, but ultimately it was my decision, and I wanted you to hear it from me.

Shaan Puri

looks at his notes dude you still haven't said it

Vishal Garg

it's been a really really challenging decision to make

Shaan Puri

are you okay are you has it been hard for you

Vishal Garg

I've... this is the second time in my career. I'm curious, and I do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried. This time, I hope to be stronger, but we are late.

Shaan Puri

Oh my God, what are you thinking, dude? I get what he's thinking. He's thinking, "I want them to know that this is hard for me." But dude, you don't understand what people are feeling right now. First of all, they don't know what you're saying; you haven't said it. Secondly, you're talking about how hard this is for you, and last time I checked, no one gives a flying fuck if you cried or not because you still haven't said it. That's also the main problem. The second problem is you're talking about yourself, and no one cares about you in this moment.

Vishal Garg

laying off about 15% of the company

Shaan Puri

laying off ish%

Vishal Garg

racist you fucking serious the market

Shaan Puri

You can hear a guy—the guy who's recording this. By the way, this is not the screen; this is a guy pointing his camera at the phone. You heard him say, "Are you effing serious?"

Vishal Garg

Efficiency, performance, and productivity.

Shaan Puri

And peanut butter market performances... efficiency in peanut butter. What is this guy doing? First of all, he said, "We're laying off 15% of the company." He didn't say which 15% yet. Now, everybody is just thinking, "Is it me? Is it not me?" They have no idea because he hasn't brought the sledgehammer yet. Look, this is the scroll bar. Alright, this down here is where he should have said it. We're now over here, we're almost at intermission of the movie, and you know he still hasn't said it. So, I can't believe what he just said. Why did he say "performances"? By the way, he's talking about the market has turned, so... is it my performance or is it the market? And Peter Lair...

Vishal Garg

If you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group. **Fuck you, dude. This is laid off.**

Shaan Puri

I can't even help but laugh. **Fuck you, dude!** That guy is saying what he's supposed to say in this moment because of this messed-up hype trailer teaser strategy that the CEO took. If you're on this call, you are... you're not a game show. He thinks he's Jeff Probst; he thinks he's a game show host. He's setting up this cliffhanger that actually is pushing them off the cliff, and then they're falling down to their death. So, he comes in with, "You are one of the unlucky bunch." Unlucky? I thought you said it's performance. Is it performance, or is it unlucky? Or is it the market? Or is it peanut butter? Which one is it? We don't know yet.

Vishal Garg

Your employment here is terminated effective immediately. "Are you fucking kidding me? What does this mean for what's next?" You're going to get an email from HR at [email protected] to your personal email address.

Shaan Puri

atbetter.com follow us on twitter

Vishal Garg

Severance and your benefits: We're all U.S. employees, and we're providing 4 weeks of severance.

Shaan Puri

Also, you dressed up like a douchebag on this day. You wore the douchebag uniform: the blue collared shirt with the dark blue vest, and the khakis that are a little too tight right around the crotch, with the crotch facing the camera. That is the douchebag armor that you wore into this. Then, you're reading it really slowly off your piece of paper, and you just have a bunch of people enraged at you right now. I think there's like, I don't know, a thousand people on this call or something like that. This is something crazy. A lot of people—maybe 100 people—on this call. Insane.

Vishal Garg

1 month of full benefits and 2 months of COBRA, for which we will pay the premium, so a total of 3 months of benefits if you elect for COBRA. If you don't get a communication from **[email protected]** before the end of the day, you can email **[email protected]**.

Shaan Puri

if you don't get the email thank

Vishal Garg

you for each and every

Shaan Puri

one of your

Vishal Garg

I wish the news was different. I wish we were thriving enthusiastically as we were at the beginning of this year.

Shaan Puri

Thriving enthusiastically doesn't make sense. You wish you were thriving, yeah, of course you wish you were thriving. You didn't lose your job; the CEO who mismanaged during this time lost their job. You're talking about how you were crying last time, but you weren't crying this time. You probably didn't even cry last time. You probably don't give a shit, to be honest with you. Maybe you feel bad. Actually, I take that back. He feels bad. He feels bad; he should feel bad. But he handled it badly. You can feel bad, but you gotta handle it well. He felt bad and handled it poorly. Peanut butter.

Vishal Garg

that's not the case and I am sure

Shaan Puri

you better finish strong leave us

Vishal Garg

and be more successful

Shaan Puri

Where are you going? What is this wedding speech? And you're drunk! I'm sure you will leave us. What is he saying?

Vishal Garg

more fortunate and

Shaan Puri

you'll be more fortunate

Vishal Garg

In your next endeavor, I wish you all the best of luck. Thank you for everything you've done for Better. Thank you.

Shaan Puri

looks looks aggressively staged right did I do it can we end it can I go to lunch do we have my lunch did someone get my lunch and this guy this guy I gotta look this up better ceo salary this might be public let's see let's see let's see I feel like this guy so he laid off 900 people in that call we're not gonna pay for this paywall by the way what is the stealing part I didn't hear this okay I don't know what I don't know what that's about that wasn't in the video but yeah I feel like I've read somewhere in a tweet now this might be total bullshit but I've read somewhere that this guy you know whatever something like $10,000,000 of compensation last year but that honestly he's a private company so I I don't know what's going on they have a spac of course they have a spac of course they went public with us the spac let's see better spac yeah raised $750,000,000 from their spac backers they already had 1,500,000,000 from softbank so this guy easily easily this guy is this guy the the founder vishal garg is he the founder he Google Google said what company laid off 900 employees answer better.com I think this guy was the founder yeah founder and ceo so this guy easily this company's valued multiple 1,000,000,000 of dollars this guy is clearly worth over $500,000,000 probably go for more than $1,000,000,000 and he's talking about lunch in his hot douchebag outfit alright bad terrible way to do it there's