In the first paragraph alone there are two huge, billowing red flags. 1. The author thinks that a technical co-founder is "a software engineer who works for no

In the first paragraph alone there are two huge, billowing red flags. 1. The author thinks that a technical co-founder is "a software engineer who works for no cash." 2. The author went through four "technical co-founders" inside a year. My guess is the author was looking for freelance-type work, paying out equity "as if" it were cash (i.e., as a function of deliverables vs. a vesting schedule), and in general was micromanaging the engineers he found. A co-founder is a business partner, not "your" employee.