I think (from having tried it) that doing it as "a favor" isn't going to make the cut. One of the reasons my first two fail is that our team simply didn't have

I think (from having tried it) that doing it as "a favor" isn't going to make the cut. One of the reasons my first two fail is that our team simply didn't have the dedication and wasn't able to find the sheer hour count to sink into the project. I think one thing a lot of people on the thread are expressing is that if you want to join an equity project, you want to give it your all, because otherwise its not going to work out for you. And if you "all" is being rewarded with piddly equity (not founder status, not CTO), then ... well, you just aren't interested or aren't really going to give anywhere as near as much as you could. The other crater was for other reasons.