Take this as a hard lesson learned. &quot;Trust, but verify&quot; should be modus operandi.<p>You really should distance yourself from this guy, since he&#x27;s acting maliciously. Badmouthing him to random people isn&#x27;t really productive for you either. As a consolation, his lies will eventually catch up to him because people who have been burned before will quickly recognize the signs.<p>Remove your affiliation from the company. You were a freelance consultant for all the product and technical parts. That&#x27;s how you should explain the experience. You left a PhD program to pursue a tempting opportunity of increased responsibility in a fast paced environment, with potentially large impact. It didn&#x27;t turn out as you had hoped. The due diligence in a lot of these places is pretty bad anyways, so you likely will never be questioned about personal conflicts at this startup.