Better.com loses more senior execs as employees brace for another mass layoff

Things are getting worse at Better.

More executives have resigned from Better.com nearly three months after the online mortgage lender laid off 900 employees via Zoom and as the company prepares for more layoffs, according to multiple sources familiar with the internal happenings at the company. Those sources include both current and former employees.

The latest events at the company involve the resignations of four more top executives, including Clayton Carol, the company’s VP of finance; Christian Wallace, head of real estate; Paul Tyger, general manager of purchase; and Stephen Rosen, head of sales.

TechCrunch has reached out to Better.com for comment, as well as to the four individuals, but had not heard back ahead of the publication of this story.

In a LinkedIn post dated February 16, Carol announced his departure, stating that he was leaving after nearly three years in his role as VP of finance. He wrote:

I have decided to leave and seek new opportunities. My time at Better was an incredibly rewarding experience and I am grateful to my colleagues, particularly those in the finance and accounting team, for their trust and camaraderie over these years. I learned so much from all of you and I am amazed at what we accomplished.

News of Wallace’s departure was leaked on Blind earlier this month when an internal email was shared by a verified user.

According to LinkedIn, Wallace had started at Better in March 2020 as sales director before transitioning into a head of sales role and then head of real estate services in March 2021. Tyger joined the company in 2019 as director of business operations and Rosen had started at the company in December 2016 as a growth associate, and at one point was the company’s chief of staff and director of sales strategy and operations.

Meanwhile, multiple sources who wish to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation tell TechCrunch that Better is preparing for a massive layoff that could affect as much as 40% to 50% of its staff. The layoffs are expected to hit sometime in March. At the time of the company’s early December layoffs, Better.com had about 9,100 employees. Since then, remaining employees have reportedly been leaving in droves, with senior executives leaving one by one.

The most recent departures are not entirely surprising, considering the amount of negative publicity Better.com has suffered in recent months.

It’s been a tumultuous 11 or so weeks since CEO Vishal Garg laid off 9% of the company’s staff via a Zoom call that participants have characterized as callous in tone. In addition to losing an ongoing string of senior team members, two board members stepped down. The company’s $6.9 billion SPAC has been delayed indefinitely. Disturbing details of Garg’s long history of verbal abuse have also emerged. 

The turmoil may be impacting the outfit’s bottom line. The company disclosed in a recent SEC filing that its fourth-quarter net loss may reach $182 million, while revenue fell as much as 22% from the previous quarter. In the meantime, Bloomberg reported earlier this week, Better.com has been hiring more aggressively in India, purportedly due to the lower cost of labor.

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