[sbarre]

I was in a slightly similar situation (without a board), and I did wait too long to act, and by then it was too late and the only option was to break up the company.

It sucked, and I felt like I had wasted 3 years of my life, and while my co-founder definitely did his own damage by not holding up his end, my biggest personal mistake was to not immediately, and aggressively, deal with the problem when I saw it arise (and after initial cooperative attempts at resolution went nowhere).

If you are putting everything you have into your startup, then you have everything to lose if you let someone else fuck it up for you.