As smt88 says in the comments: > You can't. If you value the relationship, don't do this. While I agree that there is never a water-tight way to protect person

As smt88 says in the comments: > You can't. If you value the relationship, don't do this. While I agree that there is never a water-tight way to protect personal relationships, it is possible to retain them in a business scenario. But I would advise against it. I have for many years now had a company with my best friend. We lived together for a long time, and let me tell you — you start to lose the quirks and the 'niceties' of an established personal relationship very very fast unless you are able to separate work and life, and create boundaries to do so. It seems like you and your wife currently have a separate home life from your other business partners, so this is a good step. One of the reasons why my and my friend's company works so well is that we have a strict 50/50 split on equity and pay. This means sometimes one contributes more than the other. Yes, this can create feelings of resentment — and unless you are 100% open about your feelings with each other, and are close enough to remedy it, these feelings can harbor and grow and ultimately ruin the relationship. Business (especially when starting one) is unpredictable. That is an understatement. I would argue that splitting equity differently than equally has more potential to go wrong because roles are often redefined on the fly and you cannot foresee with certainty how much work each person will have on their plate. I feel like my 'success' at doing at what you are hoping to achieve is an outlier. Indeed, we have also both worked with other family members and this has somewhat soured relations. Very rarely does business make a pre-existing personal relationship stronger. It adds more potential points of contention. Things never go swimmingly; and the best you can hope for is a solid outcome with bumps along the way. You must ask yourself if you are capable of handling these bumps as a group. You must also ask yourself if you are willing to lose your relationship (as it is). This is a very real risk, and has happened to people I know (myself included). I wish you the best, but also cannot strain enough how important it is to value personal relationships.