Why 3 equal co-founders might not be a great idea

While having the right cofounders substantially increases your chances of success compared to going solo, having the wrong cofounders can do just the opposite.

Tricky to find the right ones, critical but tricky.

This seems to me to be a pretty special case. I would hope that in the same situation, I would realize that giving 2/3 of a company to a casual friend and her friend (that I don't know) means losing control.

In a situation where you have 3 good friends, I would expect that to work out well, because any 2-sided disputes could be resolved democratically without much fuss.

_consider keeping a controlling voting interest in the company_

Not sure why this would ever be in question. Giving 1/3 of a company to a stranger is frankly inconceivable to me.

Well, on the bright side, they're working for _you_ now, since you still own a large chunk of it.