If you have a 4-year vesting schedule with a one-year cliff, then anyone who walks away before 12 months have passed leaves empty-handed. Anyone who walks away

If you have a 4-year vesting schedule with a one-year cliff, then anyone who walks away before 12 months have passed leaves empty-handed. Anyone who walks away before 48 months have passed will be giving up at least a little. However, I think vesting only protects you from co-founders who quit. I'm not sure how you can deal with situations where a co-founder simply stops contributing (or only contributes an extremely minimal amount). HNers, and advice in this area? On a related note, splitting the company equally might not be the best decision. People are different, and as a result will contribute differing amounts. Later down the road, you don't want anyone to feel like he's doing a disproportionately large amount of work. Sit down and agree on what you expect from each other in terms of time, commitment, and effort, and make sure the equity is split fairly based on that.