What is “the startup” in this case? What is preventing from disclosing the name of the business?
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/homeshare-rents-luxury-apart...
As someone asked somewhere, "Why does Twitter need hundreds of developers? It's basically a CRUD interface."
The business model as I understand it is they pay for any missing roommates rent until the spot is filled? Maybe they had a fragmentation problem? 30 people move into 10 rooms, 10 people move out, negative 30% income.
Main page for California small claims courts.[2] Some things can be done online.
[1] http://mcwrealestatelaw.com/eviction/arbitration-clause-in-y...
If you rile up a mob (and an internet mob certainly counts), even if you don't do so directly but let "the comment section figure it out", and then don't get that content moderated, you lose whatever legal standing you might have had if the courts need to become involved. Any lawsuit you file will get thrown out immediately.
Which is why on Reddit the mods will aggressively redact any attempt to identify legal parties. You might want to name and shame, but that is a destructive desire.