Sorry, but it appears to me to be that he wants as most coding done as possible before he invariable cuts you out of the deal. Going public would mean that you have a kind of partnership and are therefore entitled to equity. By keeping it private, or in a prototype phase, he can keep the number of people who are aware you are working together to a minimum.
I don't know what happened but I know the "awesome new guy" seems to be actually ok and very reasonable. He just fails to see the real point of the project and I think my cofounder is swayed too easily by unfounded opinions of people of a seemingly high status.
I actually don't think my cofounder is that much evil but he is out of touch with reality and refuses to engage in any communication that points it out. And yes, he's protecting his contacts quite hard and quite explicitly at times. Also tries to conceal the real state of things - I found out he got hired by the VC company only indirectly and after asking him a lot.
Then start learning abt VC, meeting people, and cutting deals by yourself. It's not that hard.