It's not unusual to see venture investors touting their portfolio companies – no matter what dogs they might be holding. But the other way around? That's unusual.

So I was surprised the other day to see Spencer Rascoff, the CFO of real estate website Zillow.com, defending the honor of his venture backer in the comment section of New York Times columnist Joe Nocera's blog. Nocera had recently teed off on Bill Miller, the legendary manager of the Legg Mason Value Trust mutual fund; after a 15 year streak of beating the S&P 500, Miller the last few years has been unable to top the market, leading to mass redemptions.

But besides just returning cash to angry investors, the firm has also been doing some dot-com investing, including leading Zillow's $30 million series C round. And so Spencer went on the offense:

It’s ridiculous to say that a 15-year successful investing streak is pure luck ... Bill Miller and his team are smart investors, not the beneficiary of dumb luck.

Was Zillow afraid that tarnishing Bill would lead to Zillow getting smeared? I emailed him to see if Bill Miller or any of his Legg colleagues asked Spencer to come to their aid. He said he did it on his own:

I have been a finance geek for many years – I worked on Wall Street at Bear Stearns and Allen & Company, and was an investment banker @ Goldman Sachs before becoming a private equity investor. As something of a student of finance and investing, I've admired Bill Miller and his track record for most of my adult life ... Even if Legg hadn't invested in Zillow, I would have left that comment.

Companies have trouble raising venture cash might want to think about this strategy. Promise a few down-on-their-luck private equity pros that if they invest you'll do their PR in your spare time. There are worse ways to get funding.