From my experience, complicated earn-out structures are a nuisance. They are hard to set up fairly (a lot of edge cases) and even harder to deal with if things

From my experience, complicated earn-out structures are a nuisance. They are hard to set up fairly (a lot of edge cases) and even harder to deal with if things go south. I second what nedwin said about vesting & equal split. Instead of focusing on putting equity value on every hour spent, think of the desired outcome (great company equally split by three cofounders) with a lot of time allocated and a kill switch in place.