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Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

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Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#2
Given that the CEO is probably worth nowhere near $750MM absent his founders stock, isn't this just him just leaning into a binary outcome? Either Better.com can pay off the loan in 5 years or it's gone broke by the and he gives up his share in bankruptcy. I mean, it cuts out the "just squeaking by" option as him having to give up all his equity in something that was worth hundreds of millions is a big kick in the teeth, but what are the odds Better.com defaults and the stock is worth anything?

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#3
post #2

Given that the CEO is probably worth nowhere near $750MM absent his founders stock, isn't this just him just leaning into a binary outcome? Either Better.com can pay off the loan in 5 years or it's gone broke by the and he gives up his share in bankruptcy. I mean, it cuts out the "just squeaking by" option as him having to give up all his equity in something that was worth hundreds of millions is a big kick in the te…

A quick search shows Garg's net worth is ~4B. Despite previous actions he deserves some amount of respect IMO for putting his own money on the line here.

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#4
post #2

Given that the CEO is probably worth nowhere near $750MM absent his founders stock, isn't this just him just leaning into a binary outcome? Either Better.com can pay off the loan in 5 years or it's gone broke by the and he gives up his share in bankruptcy. I mean, it cuts out the "just squeaking by" option as him having to give up all his equity in something that was worth hundreds of millions is a big kick in the te…

Sounds like a good bet!

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#6
post #3
post #2

Given that the CEO is probably worth nowhere near $750MM absent his founders stock, isn't this just him just leaning into a binary outcome? Either Better.com can pay off the loan in 5 years or it's gone broke by the and he gives up his share in bankruptcy. I mean, it cuts out the "just squeaking by" option as him having to give up all his equity in something that was worth hundreds of millions is a big kick in the te…

A quick search shows Garg's net worth is ~4B. Despite previous actions he deserves some amount of respect IMO for putting his own money on the line here.

Could be based on the valuation of the company based on the latest funding round

Which could be tanking as we speak

I don't see any news of the SPAC merge to have succeeded (estimated for Q4 21)

and this article shows they just laid off 1/3 of staff

https://therealdeal.com/2022/03/15/future-city-better-coms-t...

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#8
I'm currently in late stages with Better, and holy crap is this company on fire (not in a good way).

I've been using them for 3 months exactly, and on my 5th advisor. An advisor is your sole point of contact for the loan... questions, concerns, documents, everything. They don't tell you when the advisor changes, you just notice by chance the little initial emoji of your advisor changed. Realize this means the previous one left, or got fired.

They have no real ticketing. Each worker has a unique and seemingly private email and text...so you start fresh with each one. To the point you don't even want to ask questions, because they'll just fire the person you asked and you'll start fresh again...a week before closing...

The site and flow are slick, that's what drew me in. But the company as a whole is odd and I'd highly recommend not using them.

Re: Better.com CEO Vishal Garg says he is personally liable for $750M SoftBank loan

#10
post #7

I don't understand the context. Why is this a big deal? Why would 90% of the employees bail?

That’s the guy who fired a bunch of people over Zoom a few months ago. Financial issues mainly, here is some context: https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/18/better-com-loses-more-seni...
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