[redm]

Co-founding a startup (or with multiple partners) is a very personal thing. People get emotional about it and there's almost always someone working harder, which causes discontent to grow over time. Eventually, you have to split or the party who provided more substance feels cheated. To make things worse, the value is often very subjective.

There's no easy way to handle this. It sounds like you are going to move on without him so just tell him that, offer him a small piece of the business and take the rest. If he doesn't want to cooperate, you can always just start a new entity and continue on your own.

Co-founder choice is the hardest and most impactful choice a startup can have. At a minimum, I try to craft an MOU that states what each person's responsibilities are, and that they contribute meaningfully over a 3 year vesting period. That ensures if either partner drops out, they transfer the equity to the partner continuing forward. That said, because of aforementioned reasons, even that is a mine-field.