I think the answer to all three questions is: Yes. Yes, you need to watch your attitude and ability to work with others. Allowing your thoughts of "unfairness

I think the answer to all three questions is: Yes. Yes, you need to watch your attitude and ability to work with others. Allowing your thoughts of "unfairness" affect your motivation is counter-productive. Yes, you need to choose co-founders very carefully. Find people you can trust: I speak from (painful) experience. Yes, to be successful you need to do the best you can and not worry about who deserves what. Now, that being said: the best solution to all of this is communication-- preferably in advance. Sit down, say, once a week, and talk about what the priorities are for each of you for the coming week, and what you expect to accomplish. If everybody is on the same page in terms of priorities and expectations, the other problems are minor. The weekly meetings server two purposes: 1) if there are slippages between what is expected and what is happening, it's best to be able to deal with those quickly (i.e., within a week) rather than let the pressure/dissatisfaction build, and 2) once you've agreed to what your co-founders are planning to do during the week, you don't have to think about it again until the next meeting-- you can give your expectations and comparisons a rest.