Some initial thoughts and answers:<p>1) Why: You need and want someone who can at least give thoughtful comments and critiques of ideas, plans, work, strategy, and tactics. Very, very few people do their best work in the lone-genius style, even in highly cerebral realms like academia; even Einstein had a few close friends to bounce ideas off regularly. In business, which always involves other people, a business simply can't scale without others.<p>2) Who: choose people with ability and ethics, and above all, a strong interest/passion in the venture. I think the essence here is trust, then right up there is ability to create/add value.<p>3) Terms: see Noam Wasserman's articles, <a href="http://founderresearch.blogspot.com/2007/01/topics-covered-in-this-blog-so-far.html" rel="nofollow">http://founderresearch.blogspot.com/2007/01/topics-covered-i...</a> where he discusses equity splits, founder relationships, compensation, etc. in useful detail. Also use Frank Demmler's Founder's Pie equity calculator, it's here with other relevant content,<a href="http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/fd0n/articles.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/fd0n/articles.htm</a><p>4) Stories: in process, will report on this later. :)