Shortly before Christmas, the mortgage broker Better 900 announced its employees via video call.

The company is thus parting with 15 percent of its employees.

"I come with not so good news," Garg initiated the video conference.

“It's my decision in the end, I want you to hear it from me.

We're laying off 15 percent of the workforce, "Garg continued." If you're on that call, you're part of the unfortunate group.

Your employment has ended. ”The notice of termination is effective immediately.

Winand von Petersdorff-Campen

Business correspondent in Washington.

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The entrepreneur cited market changes and the pursuit of greater productivity, effectiveness and performance as reasons for the mass layoffs.

The employees would get a monthly wage as a gap and social benefits such as health insurance contributions for three months.

The employees affected work in the USA and India.

Some of those who were terminated recorded the video conference and uploaded it to YouTube, where it now finds millions of viewers and countless outraged comments. The company started in 2016 to accelerate the mortgage loan process. After a cash injection of $ 500 million from Softbank, Better is valued at $ 6 billion. The company is aiming to go public this quarter through an already announced merger with a listed special purpose vehicle.

Because of the new prominence of the Indian-born CEO, old company announcements are being washed to the surface, which makes Garg appear in a less favorable light. One is about a lawsuit by a former business partner and fellow student who accuses him of misappropriating $ 3 million from a jointly founded company and diverting it to his private account. In comments from people who pretend to be better employees, the entrepreneur is portrayed as a man who is often wrong in tone.

On his company's website, Garg describes himself as an entrepreneur who has tried desperately and in vain to get a real estate loan in time to buy a dream property in Manhattan.

That drove him to found the start-up.

According to his own statements, Garg still lives to rent in the Tribeca district, which, according to media reports, is $ 17,000 a month.

Dailymail quotes from a post by Gargs on the Blind social network that 250 of the fired workers did not work more than two hours a day instead of eight.

You would have de facto stolen from customers who paid the bills.