A years-long lawsuit between the college-focused social app Fizz and rival Sidechat over unfair competition practices has taken an interesting turn. In a new filing, Fizz is accusing investor Jerry Lu, who is with venture capital firm Maveron, of meeting with Fizz under the guise of exploring a potential investment, but then turning around and sharing Fizz’s non-public information with its rival, Sidechat.
The new allegations raise questions about the role venture capitalists play in competitive startup markets, as founders routinely share confidential business information while fundraising, trusting that investors won’t pass it along to competitors. Some VCs continue to request updates from startups they passed on, founders have said.
Both Fizz and Sidechat are in the same business: anonymous online forums and apps where college students can network and gossip. As a result, competition for students’ attention is fierce. However, not all universities see the apps as providing value to their students. The UNC system banned the apps from its campuses across North Carolina, citing the bullying and bad behavior that take place on these anonymous social platforms. On Fizz, for example, students can simply post an individual’s name, inviting peers to opine publicly about the person.
Fizz originally sued Sidechat in 2023, alleging a range of abuses, including attempts to disrupt its launches at various college campuses, spreading false rumors about hackers accessing Fizz’s data, sending false spam reports to Instagram, and paying students to delete Fizz’s app.
The original complaint didn’t name Lu, as his involvement wasn’t known at the time.
Fizz says in its complaint that it only learned of Lu’s involvement through the legal discovery process, which revealed his role in obtaining and transmitting Fizz’s confidential information to Sidechat’s owner, Flower Ave Inc., which also acquired the Yik Yak app in 2023.
Fizz’s filing also alleges that Lu continued to act as a conduit, funneling information about Fizz’s fundraising efforts and other matters to Sidechat.
A screenshot of a text attached to the filing shows Lu sharing notes with Flower after meeting with Fizz in March 2022, the complaint alleges. In that meeting, Fizz founders Teddy Solomon and Ashton Cofer shared non-public information about Fizz’s “business strategy, growth plans, campus-launch playbook, user metrics, ambassador program, fundraising efforts, and product roadmap,” the complaint states.
Lu went on to invest in Sidechat’s second seed round in October 2023, per PitchBook data. However, Fizz claims Lu had been in discussions with Sidechat as early as 2022.
Additionally, Fizz claims that Jack Burlinson, an acquaintance of both the founders and Lu, shared confidential information — including Fizz’s investor deck and its fall summary for investors — with Lu, who then passed it directly to Sidechat. (Burlinson reached out to TechCrunch separately to state he had “no knowledge that Sidechat existed until this article,” and that “Jerry Lu had come to me under the false premise he was looking to invest . . . Jerry collected this information from me under false pretenses (that he wanted to invest in Fizz).”
Requests for comment sent to Lu and Maveron were not returned. Fizz declined to comment.
Kyle Venn, CEO of the social media platforms Yik Yak and Sidechat, shared the following comment with TechCrunch via email:
“These are allegations, not court findings. We deny any wrongdoing and will address this through the legal process. The alleged events happened before the current Sidechat team acquired the business in 2025 and inherited the lawsuit. No one on today’s operating team was involved. We’re currently focused on making a great product, not suing other apps.”
Update: This story has been updated to include comments by founder Jack Burlinson, who is included as a “mutual acquaintance” of Fizz’s founders and Lu in the lawsuit between Fizz and Sidechat.
