There are a multitude of options at play with your scenario. If the founder is not going to be active in the day-to-day operations, a royalty/licensing agreement makes a lot of sense (i.e. x dollars/unit, or an annual fee) The operating partners need to have an exclusivity arrangement so that all of their hard work doesn't go for naught if the patent license gets made available to other competitors. I would recommend two separate companies, The founder's company (he holds the patent) and the operators company (they get an exclusive license to market the product). The operators can hire the founder as a consultant as well. This way everyone gets to hold on to what they put in.