Filing: College App Fizz Alleges VC Leaked Confidential Startup Data to Competitor Sidechat
A lengthy legal battle between the college-oriented social application Fizz and its competitor Sidechat has seen a new development. Fizz has filed a complaint asserting that Jerry Lu, an investor from the venture capital firm Maveron, misrepresented his interest in investing to gain access to confidential information, which he allegedly shared with Sidechat.
These fresh accusations spotlight the ethical implications for venture capitalists in competitive startup ecosystems, where founders typically divulge sensitive business details during fundraising rounds, relying on investors to maintain confidentiality. Many founders have expressed concerns that some VCs still seek updates from companies they declined to fund.
Fizz and Sidechat operate in the same domain, providing anonymous online forums and applications for college students to connect and share gossip. Consequently, they are in fierce competition for user engagement. However, not all academic institutions view these apps positively; the University of North Carolina system has banned them from campuses due to issues like bullying and inappropriate behavior associated with anonymity.
Fizz had filed its initial lawsuit against Sidechat in 2023, citing various allegations such as attempts to sabotage its launches at colleges, spreading false information about data breaches, submitting misleading spam reports to Instagram, and incentivizing students to uninstall the Fizz app.
Initially, Lu was not mentioned in the lawsuit, as his involvement was not known at that time.
According to Fizz’s latest filing, details regarding Lu’s involvement only emerged during the legal discovery process, revealing that he played a role in acquiring and sharing Fizz’s confidential data with Sidechat’s parent company, Flower Ave Inc., which also took over the Yik Yak app in 2023.
The filing further claims that Lu acted as a channel, conveying information regarding Fizz’s fundraising and other confidential issues to Sidechat.
Screenshots included in the filing allegedly show Lu relaying notes to Flower following a meeting with Fizz in March 2022, where founders Teddy Solomon and Ashton Cofer shared sensitive details about Fizz’s “business strategy, growth plans, campus-launch tactics, user statistics, ambassador program, fundraising activities, and product roadmap.”
Data indicates that Lu later participated in Sidechat’s second seed round of investment in October 2023, although Fizz argues that he was already in discussions with Sidechat as early as 2022.
Moreover, Fizz alleges that Jack Burlinson, a mutual acquaintance of Lu and the Fizz founders, shared critical information—including Fizz’s investment presentation and a fall report for investors—with Lu, who then allegedly forwarded it to Sidechat.
Attempts to get comments from Lu and Maveron went unanswered, and Fizz opted not to provide a statement.
Kyle Venn, CEO of Yik Yak and Sidechat, communicated via email that:
“These are allegations, not judicial rulings. We deny any wrongdoing and will contest this through legal channels. The supposed incidents occurred before the current team of Sidechat took over in 2025 and inherited this lawsuit. The present team had no involvement. Our focus is on creating a high-quality product, not on litigating against other applications.”
