Vishal Garg, the founder and former CEO of Better Home & Finance Holding Co., has unveiled a 90-day plan for the mortgage company as he seeks to regain a leadership role at the publicly traded lender, setting up a battle with Better’s current board over the company’s direction.
Garg’s plan calls for Better to reach $2 billion in quarterly funded loan volume, a 25% increase from current levels, and to generate about $7 million in additional monthly revenue. He’s also targeting a reduction in monthly cash burn from about $4 million to zero.
Garg said the $2 billion quarterly volume target represents Better’s breakeven point, and he estimates that the proposed initiatives would generate about $7 million in additional monthly revenue at a 35% contribution margin, including about $2.25 million in additional monthly contribution margin.
Among the proposed actions is the launch of the CK HELOC through Better’s API-driven Tinman technology. Garg also said he intends to pursue five major partners that he said were in Better’s pipeline but had stalled amid the current management team’s plans for a standardized TinmanGo portal across partners.
Garg shared his plan in a LinkedIn post on Thursday, asking his Better “teammates” to “put an end to this reign of error.”
“I am completely legally allowed to meet any shareholder and discuss our 90 day plan post return and have you consider the consent proxy. And if you got your vote card by UPS today pls do fill it out and send it back. Your vote matters!” Garg’s post read.
Garg’s plan calls for increasing loan officers’ average daily talk time from 2.1 hours to 4 hours, which he described as the industry average, through AI call routing and workforce management. He said the goal is to improve conversion by at least 50% across Better’s consumer-direct and partner channels.
The plan also calls for increasing Better’s direct-to-consumer lock-to-fund rate from about 45% toward an industry average of 60%.
“Step one is continuing to build out the AI infrastructure and deploy Tinman to the five major partners I was in the process of closing,” Garg said. “Step two is making sure our people focus on the work AI cannot do: speaking with customers, processing loans faster, and leveraging AI to underwrite more efficiently.”
Garg is also proposing a series of cost reductions across mortgage operations, legal, compliance, finance and accounting.
One proposal would align loan officer commissions with AI-assisted customer conversions, with a targeted savings of about $500,000 a month. Another would replace the current one- to two-day counteroffer process with instant counteroffers, which Garg said could improve approval rates and revenue while reducing processor and underwriter costs by about $1 million a month.
The plan also calls for moving portions of legal work and litigation support to AI-powered or AI-assisted teams, with a targeted savings of about $500,000 a month.
The plan comes amid an ongoing governance dispute at Better, with Garg seeking to remove five current directors and replace them with candidates of his choosing, a move that could facilitate his return to an executive role.
Better did not respond to HousingWire‘s request for comment at the time of publication.
Special committee urges shareholders to reject
Better’s special committee, meanwhile, has urged shareholders to reject Garg’s campaign, arguing that the company is already moving to improve its performance under new leadership.
In an investor presentation released Monday, the committee characterized Garg’s campaign as an effort to return himself to power and criticized his record as CEO, as well as what it described as a costly and distracting consent solicitation.
The presentation says Garg “destroyed” more than $7 billion of shareholder value and presided over more than $2 billion in cumulative net losses. It also claims that he earned a low Glassdoor approval rating and a reputation for failing to deliver on commitments and financial targets.
“Mr. Garg has launched a costly and distracting campaign to reconstitute the Board, reverse its decision and return himself to a leadership role at the Company,” the presentation states.
The committee said Better has adjusted its partnerships and business model over the past month to drive profitable growth, and that the company is reducing costs and investing in distribution channels to leverage its technology, products and other competitive strengths.
The presentation outlines a new partnership model, operational focus and a “low-risk” funding model. The committee also said it does not believe Garg should hold an executive role at Better and argued that he has not presented a viable plan for the company.
“Mr. Garg has had a decade to implement his plans at Better without success; there is no reason to think the future will be different if he prevails in this campaign,” according to the presentation.
One of the directors Garg is seeking to retain, Hugh Frater, has said he would not serve on the board if Garg returned to an executive position, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The committee is unanimously recommending that shareholders sign, date and return the company’s white consent revocation card and disregard any green consent card distributed by Garg.
Shareholders who previously submitted a green consent card can revoke their consent by submitting the company’s white card, the committee said.
Board vs. Garg enters a second month
Garg founded Better and served as its CEO until the board removed him on Aug. 3 and replaced him with Daniel Lewis. Just over a week later, Garg retained attorney Alex Spiro and announced he was seeking to regain control of the company after claiming he had secured support from shareholders representing a majority of its voting power.
Better’s board has publicly pushed back on Garg’s efforts, citing the company’s cumulative net losses since 2022 and a more than 90% stock price decline during his tenure as CEO. On Aug. 18, Better sued Garg in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging he engaged in “unlawful solicitation” and committed related disclosure violations.
Garg then filed an opposition to Better’s motion for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order, arguing the action “is without merit.”
On Aug. 25, Garg sued interim CEO Daniel Lewis and six other board members, accusing them of improperly entrenching themselves after removing him as CEO. The complaint also alleges breach of fiduciary duty and seeks declaratory judgments invalidating the company’s so-called poison pill and special committee formation.
Just days later, on Aug. 31, a federal judge declined Better’s request to immediately halt Garg’s shareholder campaign, allowing him to continue soliciting support while the underlying legal dispute proceeds. The judge did not rule on whether Garg violated securities laws, finding instead that Better had not shown the campaign would cause irreparable harm.
