Howard

*661 Defendants appeal an order of the trial court denying their petition to compel arbitration. They contend the claims asserted by plaintiff Jeremy Howard arose out of his employment relationship with Kaggle, Inc. (Kaggle, or the company), of which he was president and remains a minority shareholder. We shall affirm the order.

I. BACKGROUND

In this action, plaintiff Jeremy Howard alleges that Kaggle's chief executive officer (CEO), Anthony Goldbloom, three other members of its board of directors (Benjamin Hamner, Ash Fontana, and Curtis Feeny), and three limited partnerships (Zetta Venture Partners I, L.P., Voyager Capital Fund IV, L.P., and Voyager Capital Founders' Fund IV, L.P. (the VC defendants) ) abused their corporate power and breached their fiduciary duty to him by wrongfully diluting his interest in Kaggle's stock, transferring its value to themselves through a self-dealing transaction.

*745 A. Allegations of the Complaint

Goldbloom formed an Australian company, Kaggle Pty Ltd, in 2010. In 2011, he recruited Howard to invest in the Australian company and join as an employee. Howard accepted, and he invested $100,000 Australian dollars for a 10 percent share in the…