> it's very strange to force someone out right before their equity vests
If the business-minded folk don't fully value the tech solution I can easily see this happening. This "devil's advocate" hypothetical is not an unheard of occurrence.
If this is the case, (and we don't know the details,) it means that the other founder was acting in bad faith. Hopefully the threat of a lawsuit is enough to solve the situation.
That was my thought. This is exactly what you would do if you thought you needed a little tech work up front but that it wasn't actually all that important to the future of the thing.
If the business-minded folk don't fully value the tech solution I can easily see this happening. This "devil's advocate" hypothetical is not an unheard of occurrence.