After very suddenly losing my job, I (a man) decided to start up a consulting company with one of my former coworkers (a woman). We had been friends for a long time, worked well together, and had similar goals and it felt like a good time to give it a try.
We were busy reaching out to our network and made a lot of contacts, and then one day we were contacted by one of the clients of our previous company. They said they didn't understand what was going on but it was clear they couldn't continue to receive service from the remaining non-technical staff and they wanted to meet with us to talk. Fortunately, we didn't have any non-competition agreements that would post a problem so we agreed to the meeting.
At dinner we had a good conversation, filled them in about the breakup of the company without providing any of the sordid details. They agreed to work with my partner and I in our new company and we shook hands over the new agreement (to be signed later once I got all the paperwork drawn up).
As things were winding down they said to me, "hey, we want you to know that your former boss is spreading rumors about you. She told us you had been assaulting the office staff, intentionally introducing bugs into the software, and sabotaging her company."
It was about a minute before my partner and I could get our jaws off the floor. She reacted first and stammered, "that...that's not true at all!" "Yeah, we figured, especially with you two working together. We just wanted you to know since this is potentially a legal problem for you, especially trying to get your company off the ground." (This client was a group of experienced detective and law enforcement officers)
It really was insult to injury that after failing to make sales, throwing me under the bus in client meetings (read: Vaporware), silently firing us and withholding our final paycheck (read: Ghosted), that our former CEO would blame the entire failure of the company on me, once again fabricating stories to suit her own personal narrative.
