Alchemist strongly encourages founder to put themselves on vesting schedules for a few reasons. First, if you or your co-founder ends up leaving the company for whatever reason, if you have a vesting schedule in place, the company will not be held hostage by the amount of equity the leaving party has. If you don't have a vesting schedule, when one party leaves, they will get the same equity as the party that stays -- and that can kill the company.
Secondly, if you don't put yourself on a vesting schedule, the lead investor / VC in your next financing round will. And they may start your vesting from the day of their investment. If you already were on a vesting schedule, they may give you partial or full credit for the shares that have already vested. And so you should pre-empt the vesting schedule by putting yourself on a vesting schedule now.
Vesting schedules are typically done over 48 months / 4 years, with a one year cliff. You can have your vesting start date started retroactively -- e.g. if you've been working at the company for 2 years, you could put your vesting as having started say 2 years ago.