Why did you remove it? Here is how I see it. 1) He wasn't straightforward -- i.e. he didn't outright say "we are already funding an idea similar/identical to y

Why did you remove it? Here is how I see it. 1) He wasn't straightforward -- i.e. he didn't outright say "we are already funding an idea similar/identical to yours " but I wouldn't call him a liar. 2) Who knows what his intentions are. Maybe he wanted to eliminate competition. Maybe he saw the dropbox team ahead/better-positioned and wanted to save these new applicants the time. But put yourself in his shoes. What would/could you do? The only other option was to accept them and merge them with dropbox team... but its not clear that this is a good idea or even an option acceptable to the dropbox team.