Better.com

How it happened

Better.com is a direct online mortgage lender that pitched a technology-driven, commission-free home loan, reaching a $7.7B valuation when its SPAC merger with Aurora Acquisition Corp was announced in 2021. Surging rates gutted mortgage demand, mass layoffs followed — including the infamous Zoom call firing 900 staff — and when it finally listed on Nasdaq in August 2023 the stock crashed more than 90%, leaving its market cap far below $1B. Glassdoor reviews chart the descent from inside: employees counted as many as ten layoff rounds in a year, headcount falling from roughly 10,000 to a couple thousand, no-layoff assurances broken within weeks, promotions without raises, and colleagues learning their fate when laptops went dark.

Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.