I would see the equal shares among the co-founders as a warning sign. Very rarely we see successful companies with such practice because eventually one co-founder, most commonly the founder and the CEO, begins to feel like he is not building HIS company any more and to realize that the other co-founders can be replaced for less shares or even for salaries. No matter how many co-founders there are, I advocate the CEO to have at least: a) 25% if he is not responsible for any specialization or function (marketing, tech, operation, etc.). The breakdown is 10% for the idea and 15% for his work as CEO. b) 40% if he is responsible for a function beside managing the company. In this case, it is 10% idea, 15% for acting as the CEO and 15% for his other function. I introduced an innovative way for equity split that spread in Egypt for the last year and people got comfortable using it.