My best advise from a friend who is a successful entrepreneur is that "legal issues that are unimportant to you when you are successful are also unimportant to you when you are unsuccessful." Interestingly, the opposite is also true. For example, vesting of Founder stock is that one issue that is important whether or not you are successful. Ownership needs to be earned and there has to be a vesting schedule even for the Founders' stock. It matters a great deal how you can discharge a partner if they don't perform. This is true if the partnership is a success and interestingly even more true if the partnership is a failure (since you would need to restart the company with different partners). Over-protecting yourself is counter-productive but not protecting yourself adequately is irresponsible ... true for sex, true for startups.