[codingdave]

Meeting with a firm who is actively out to collect money from you is a dangerous path for a young founder without a legal background. You don't want to accidentally give them any more fuel for a potential lawsuit via something you say during that meeting.

I do agree that talking to legal counsel is wise... but not necessarily VC B's legal counsel, as that relationship will skew towards what is good for the VC, not your company.

Also, don't be afraid of getting sued. One of my lawyer friends always says that small businesses tend to harm themselves by over-avoiding lawsuits. If you grow enough, lawsuits will happen, and you need to know how to deal with them. Act from a position of knowledge, not of fear.

[mikeryan]

This is one of those things where you have his lawyer talk to your lawyer. This guy shouldn't be talking to anyone himself.

[paulsutter]

Absolutely no.

The best thing he can do is listen and get more information. You can't resolve a dispute without talking, and it only ends up in court if you don't resolve it. Yes he could ask his new investors for advice, and yes he should have called his lawyer the minute he heard, but the best way to clear things up is to listen to the VCs who are unhappy.

This is a completely different situation from the reason not to "talk it over" with the cops.

[codingdave]

But this is not a dispute, at least not yet. It is just a one-sided request. They can just talk to their lawyer, ignore it, and wait to see if the VC files a suit. Short of that, there is no obligation to even reply. So why go into potentially dangerous legal territory at all, when you are perfectly in your rights to just discuss it with your lawyers, but then ignore it?

[paulsutter]

This is a VC who wanted to invest in the last round, not an attacking army. There's no reason to leave the relationship on a sour note.

[zamalek]

This doesn't make things necessarily more sour. Firstly, given the evidence in the post, it sounds like a BS claim (although only a lawyer would know). Things are already sour. That being said, reaching an amicable arrangement via legal proxy doesn't make the situation sour at all. Getting lawyers involved is not an aggressive action - they are the subject matter experts. Just like you wouldn't have a software architect dealing with relations, you don't put a founder in charge of legalities.