No need to be torn, it's both (and more). Obviously, it's sad when your venture fails; writing a long rambling missive (in the third person) about how you called your partner's parents and how everyone should sue your partner, though, is pathetic. Could have simply said the company is shutting down, that one of the founders is no longer able to work on it and provided a contact address for people who need to recover their money.
While this is a particularly nasty situation, absolutely off-the-wall meltdown behaviour like this is actually pretty common in startups when things start going bad. Anyone remember the meltdown between the partners in the documentary Startup.com (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/)? I think most people at least have the wherewithal not to air the dirty laundry out in public.
It's just another risk and potential downside to partnering with someone in business. Everybody's done something at least a little bit crazy and out-of-character when a romantic relationship has hit the rocks. Maybe you did something innocent but pathetic like burning compilation CDs (i.e. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist). But we've all heard of the crazy girlfriend who dumps her (now ex-) boyfriend's stuff in front of the house after catching him cheating. Business partnerships aren't all that different. Really they involve the same levels of emotional attachment and passion.
It's important to try to assess the behaviours that a potential partner reverts to when under stress. For programmers, that might be shutting the world out and ignoring calls/emails rather than facing the music when there's a disagreement over deliverables. For non-programmer business-types, that might be writing and re-writing business plans and coming up with rather dreamy fantasy plans rather than actually getting deals done. These particular cases I think are the more common revertive behaviours (for lack of a known proper term) for programmers and business types. They're also behaviours that tend to drive the other party in such a partnership absolutely bonkers.
You definitely don't want someone who reverts to a temper tantrum like this guy from fundable. To be fair to him, this is most likely a sad case of both partners having individual meltdowns simultaneously.
Whatever happens, you don't air your dirty laundry in public. That makes all of you 'untouchable' for any future ventures.
I understand that this guy needed to blow off steam, but this is basically a trial-by-media attempt and a way to get back at someone. If you can't part well when things don't work you are not made for the startup scene.
