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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

#21
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> net worth is ~4B net worth is not the same as liquidity

Net worth is the more relevant value for a loan guarantee.

But I'd assume a huge amount of that net worth is due to Better.com's valuation. Valuation is, of course, just the amount the most recent investors paid for their shares, times the total number of shares. And those most recent investors include Softbank, who also gave the founder the loan.

Seems like a pretty scary loop.

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

#22

I wonder if Softbank demanded this because of what happened at WeWork?

Makes sense. If Better.com crashes, they're probably not getting much from the CEO, because so much of his net worth is tied up in Better and he would just file for bankruptcy. So it seems like this would be a tool to prevent the insanity of what happened with Adam Neumann, in which SoftBank had to pay a shitload to acquire his shares just to get him to leave and not tank the rest of their investment.

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

#23

wow! Phrasing! Are we still doing phrasing? Alternate title: CEO personally guarantees company financing "The CEO believes in his struggling company, although it theoretically means he could have an excuse to sell a bunch of Better.com shares or personally declare bankruptcy, this CEO has 5x as much cash and is probably swimming in less debt than most of the middle class."

I agree, there should really be a title change here.

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

#24

wow! Phrasing! Are we still doing phrasing? Alternate title: CEO personally guarantees company financing "The CEO believes in his struggling company, although it theoretically means he could have an excuse to sell a bunch of Better.com shares or personally declare bankruptcy, this CEO has 5x as much cash and is probably swimming in less debt than most of the middle class."

OP here..

I in no way meant the title to be misleading…I included the specific company (Better) because they’ve been in the news recently for multiple rounds of layoffs.

Likewise, this is one of the few times I’ve seen a founder personally guarantee such a big loan for their startup, and it’s more notable considering Better’s business (and valuation) seems to be in shambles.

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

#25
post #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 previou…

I had no issues using them last year. As a matter of fact there was a whole subindustry of churning your mortgage as interest rates kept falling. Better.com allowed for that because of how seamless everything is and they would price match any rate you got.

Of course if you have some edge case and tons of questions or issues YMMV and you'd have similiar back and forth. Their call center which seemed to be staffed in the US was always helpful in answering questions or escalating if there are delays in the advisor side.

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

#26
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> net worth is ~4B net worth is not the same as liquidity

Net worth is the more relevant value for a loan guarantee.

If Better can't itself afford to pay the loan back, bringing the personal guarantee into play, what value will the equity have?

Net worth is an abstraction that's generally useful to reason about outcomes, but it's a leaky abstraction.

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

#27
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> net worth is ~4B net worth is not the same as liquidity

Net worth is the more relevant value for a loan guarantee.

Unless that loan underpins the value

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

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Net worth is the more relevant value for a loan guarantee.

If Better can't itself afford to pay the loan back, bringing the personal guarantee into play, what value will the equity have? Net worth is an abstraction that's generally useful to reason about outcomes, but it's a leaky abstraction.

One would assume Softbank made sure that the debt was collateralized with something other than Better.com shares. I'm sure a good chunk of that 750M is collateralized with better.com shares but I'd be willing to bet they made him put some other stock/investments on the line.

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

#29
post #25
post #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 previou…

I had no issues using them last year. As a matter of fact there was a whole subindustry of churning your mortgage as interest rates kept falling. Better.com allowed for that because of how seamless everything is and they would price match any rate you got. Of course if you have some edge case and tons of questions or issues YMMV and you'd have similiar back and forth. Their call center which seemed to be staffed in t…

I had issues with Better last year. Advisors were hard to reach, away on vacation without notice, completely unreachable before 9AM and after 5PM, and unable to adjust to the highly competitive market that was going on last year (needed 15 day close as opposed to 30). I had to switch to a local banker, who was able to provide the speed and flexibility required as they were used to the local market. The local banker also offered the same rate as Better, meaning there was no advantage to Better whatsoever.

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

#30
post #9

How does better.com make money? what is their business model? The site says they charge zero commissions & lender fees - does this just apply to the loan recipient? maybe it's just commission from the lenders?

Better is a direct lender, not a broker. They make their money from the spread between the rate/points offered to the user and the price they can package and sell the loan for.

Ok so why makes them different from any other company selling loans to consumers?

I took out a loan from hitatchi a while back, I’ve just today had about an exciting new rebranding they’ve had changing they’re name and how ecstatic I, as a customer, will be about it

Do I care? No. At start I care about monthly payments and how many months it is. Afterwards I care how long is left.

If better come out with better rates than any other provider that’s great, but there’s no value add for this type of product, it’s just how much it costs.

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