Better.com’s new boss once told the mortgage lender’s founder, “I actually love you,” and showered him with praise as a “0.01%” talent — before replacing him in the top job and becoming his adversary in an increasingly nasty battle for control of the company, according to court papers.
Daniel Lewis, an activist investor who amassed a stake in Better, repeatedly gushed over founder Vishal Garg in private text messages while advising him on strategy, court filings said.
“I woke up this morning thinking about you — you are by far the most compelling CEO in my public portfolio,” Lewis wrote to Garg on March 10, according to messages included in court filings.
The remarkable bromance unraveled months later when Garg, who made headlines in 2021 after he let go some 900 employees over a Zoom call, nominated Lewis to Better’s board on July 27.
Just one week later, on Aug. 3, the board fired Garg after 12 years running the home-finance company. Lewis was installed as interim CEO.
Boardroom tumult
Now Better and its founder are slugging it out in Manhattan federal court over Garg’s effort to oust Lewis and four other directors. While Better is accusing Garg of taking illegal steps in that effort, Garg is hoping to become interim CEO if he prevails.
Just hours after Garg was canned, Lewis, who had taken over as interim CEO, continued sending affectionate messages.
“You are the last person I am texting tonight — you are on my mind. You are in my heart, whether you believe it or not,” Lewis wrote shortly after midnight on Aug. 4, according to the messages included in court filings.
Less than two minutes later, Lewis wrote in all caps: “REMOVING VISHAL GARG IS NOT WINNING. HE IS OUR FOUNDER.”
Garg now alleges Lewis maneuvered his way into power after spending months ingratiating himself with the founder — an accusation contained in Garg’s opposition filed Monday to Better’s request for a court order restricting his shareholder revolt.
Lewis told The Post: “Let’s set the record straight. At the time of those quotes, I was an outside shareholder trying to coach Vishal relying solely on public information.”
He added that Garg “described himself as a ‘man child’ and as ’emotionally unintelligent’.”
“Against that backdrop, the tone of the messages should surprise no one. If telling Vishal I loved him every morning helped motivate him, focus him, calm him down or make him a better CEO, I was perfectly happy to tell him I loved him every morning,” Lewis said.
Lewis alleged that after he “got inside the company” in May of this year, he “saw the corporate waste, the related-party dealings, the toxicity and dysfunction, and initiatives that made zero sense.”
“All the love died when the diligence began,” Lewis said.
A spokesperson for Garg said it was “straight-up false” that he told Lewis he was a “man child” or “emotionally unintelligent.”
Better, founded in 2015, is a publicly traded digital home-finance company that sought to upend the traditional mortgage business through technology.
Garg served as CEO from its inception until his Aug. 3 termination.
Lewis began building a stake in Better in 2025 and disclosed ownership of 476,283 Class A shares that October, according to Garg’s filing.
At the same time, the two men developed a close relationship.
‘You’re a great guy’
“I find you at a level that is in the 0.01%. I know what I see,” Lewis wrote Garg in October 2025, according to court papers.
“You have earned my respect over this last year — I will be there for you,” he wrote in March.
In another message that month, Lewis told Garg: “I always wonder why people cant [sic] go as fast as I can. And you go faster. Humbling, to be honest.”
As recently as May 28, Lewis told Garg he had been “FANTASTIC today. 10/10.”
The next day he wrote: “CEO you have my respect — you’re a great guy. Lots we can learn and do together.”
The messages, all of which were included in filings, were not uniformly flattering. Lewis also warned Garg about his reputation for being overly aggressive with projections and called the founder both Better’s “greatest opportunity and risk factor.”
By May, according to Garg’s lawyers, Lewis was proposing sweeping changes at Better, including board resignations, seats for Lewis and his allies and aggressive cost-cutting.
Garg’s attorneys now call Lewis the “architect of the coup” that eventually toppled him. That characterization is disputed and has not been adjudicated by the court.
Shares tumble
The boardroom upheaval sent Better shares tumbling.
Garg’s court papers say the stock fell 41.6%, from a $27.30 close on Aug. 3 to a $15.95 low the following day, and had fallen nearly 60% to $11.68 by last Friday.
Lewis, meanwhile, went on what Garg’s lawyers describe as a four-week vacation in the south of France after taking the helm, according to the filing.
The drama took another bizarre turn just three days after Garg’s firing.
Garg claims Better offered to bring him back as vice chairman and an adviser to Lewis through the end of 2027 in a compensation package his lawyers say was worth more than $15 million at the time.
Garg rejected the offer, saying the role lacked the executive authority he believed was needed to make necessary changes at Better.
The next day, Garg claims, board chair Harit Talwar and director Prabhu Narasimhan acknowledged that installing Lewis had been a mistake and proposed an “off-ramp.”
Garg claims that if he could have demonstrated that shareholders holding a majority of Better’s voting power opposed the new regime, four directors would resign and pave the way for a reconstituted board.
They asked him to obtain formal proof of shareholder support through what they called a “requisition letter,” Garg claimed.
“If a requisition letter is sent and the board is sacked we are done,” Narasimhan wrote Garg on Aug. 10, according to the court filing.
That alleged arrangement is now central to the federal court fight: Garg argues the board asked him to gather proof of shareholder support, only for Better to later accuse him of unlawful solicitation and coordination with the investors whose backing he obtained.
Garg initially claimed those investors represented a majority of Better’s voting power — but that turned out to be wrong.
His lawyers now acknowledge the group represented around 45% of the vote, short of the majority needed to remove the directors.
Better sued Garg on Aug. 18, accusing him of federal securities-law violations tied to the shareholder campaign, including allegedly misleading claims about his voting support and improper coordination with other investors.
Garg’s lawyers have branded the episode another Better “gotcha” — arguing the company asked him to gather shareholder backing, supplied the figures behind his erroneous majority claim and then sued him over the resulting campaign.
