Tensions between startup founders and their boards have become a recurring feature of the tech industry’s legal calendar. This case adds a particularly detailed set of allegations to that pattern.
Hayden AI, a San Francisco-based spatial analytics company serving cities globally, filed a lawsuit late last month in San Francisco Superior Court against its co-founder and former CEO, Chris Carson. The complaint, 21 pages long, became public only this week. It accuses Carson of stealing proprietary data, committing financial fraud, and fabricating his professional credentials.
The alleged misconduct, according to the filing, began taking shape in early 2024. Carson is said to have sold more than $1.2 million worth of company stock without board approval — funds the complaint claims he used to purchase a multimillion-dollar home in Boca Raton, Florida, and several luxury items, including a “gold Bentley Continental.”
By July 2024, the company had launched a formal investigation into his conduct.
What followed, according to the complaint, was a data extraction. As Carson was being sidelined from key decisions in August 2024, he allegedly asked an employee to download his entire 41GB email archive onto a USB stick — a file the company says contained a substantial volume of proprietary information. The broader list of alleged wrongdoing includes “forged board signatures, unauthorized stock sales, and improper allocation of personal expenses.”
Hayden AI formally terminated Carson on September 10, 2024. He had registered the domain name echotwin.ai just days before his dismissal. Carson has since launched EchoTwin AI, a competing firm based in Oakland. In an email quoted in the lawsuit, he described the venture as “a direct response to the retaliation I experienced from Hayden’s board following my departure.”
Carson did not respond to requests for comment sent via LinkedIn, email, and text message. No one answered the door during an unscheduled visit to EchoTwin AI‘s Oakland office during business hours on Wednesday afternoon.
A Résumé the Complaint Calls “Carefully Constructed Fraud”
Beyond the financial allegations, Hayden AI takes direct aim at Carson’s stated background. His LinkedIn profile lists a doctorate from Waseda University in Tokyo, completed in 2007. “That is a lie,” the complaint states plainly. “Carson does not hold a PhD from Waseda or any other university. In 2007, he was not obtaining a PhD but was operating ‘Splat Action Sports,’ a paintball equipment business in a Florida strip mall.”
The filing also disputes the length of his claimed US military service and the existence of a company called “Louisa Manufacturing” listed on his profile. The complaint describes his CV as a whole as a “carefully constructed fraud.”
What the Company Is Asking the Court to Do
Hayden AI, which carries an estimated valuation of $464 million according to PitchBook, has requested preliminary injunctive relief. The company is asking the court to order Carson to either return or destroy the data he allegedly took before his termination.
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