The nightmare of having to first value 1MM worth of shares on day one of a company, and then have to value Patrick's immediately intangible contribution to the company, both of which involve absurdly difficult predictions, is why you're better off not trying to resolve things between founders with shares. Or, at any rate, this is I think the point Joel Spolsky is trying to make. Reasonable people can &c &c &c.

The $1MM in vs. $0 in situation sounds like a nightmare all its own, though. Has anyone here been in a situation like that? How did it work out?