[AnotherMarc]

Assuming you can convince him to join at whatever stock distribution is acceptable to him, you, and your other founder, you might not need to worry about what's left for future investors. That will be a separate negotiation, and everyone will likely get diluted then, whether they own 5% or 50%.

3 founders can work fine. Many would consider it better than 2, all else being equal, since with 3 you can break some decision logjams. But that assumes all 3 are good, and that you have developed a strong working relationship. Reading your post, where you are technical, you are bringing someone on to help, and eventually he may be promoted to CTO, makes me wonder if you view him as more junior, currently. And whether he views himself more junior. That might drive both the equity split, and whether he participates as an equal in routine operational (or even technical) decisions.

[tixocloud]

Thanks. Yes, those are very good points for me to take into consideration. Given this early stage, I was hoping to get something going faster without having to worry too much about future dilution, etc. but I do worry about his participation and perception of equality from his end of things.

That being said, I had a quick chat with him and apparently, he's doing another startup so looks like the decision has already been made for me for the time being.