[rqebmm]

I'd argue the better analogy is "If you have a great idea, what's more important to get it to market: your first engineer or your first investor?"

The next is always going to be "well, do I have enough money to pay my engineer?" This is why the investor holds all the cards and therefore gets the best deal up front. Without that up-front money there is no eventual business.

[jacquesm]

That's not true.

You have the option to give that engineer a real slice of the cake instead of the misers share that's common. I've seen co-founders be labeled 'engineer #1' because they sat down 15 minutes after the first meeting where a company's founding was discussed.

Non technical founders can - and do - use investors money to try to limit the number of co-founders so they get a larger share themselves. Technical founders are less likely to do this to non-technical co-founders. (But it does happen.)

[softawre]

> Technical founders are less likely to do this to non-technical co-founders. (But it does happen.)

Technical people are so great, aren't they! No bias here.

[jacquesm]

It's not that they're 'so great' it's just that they are usually less business savvy and doing less 'jockeying for position'. They tend to not be in it for the money as much as they're in for the challenge which makes it relatively easy to take advantage of them. (Been there, done that, have several t-shirts to go with it and I promise it won't happen again but if I had known 20 years ago what I know now... never mind, hindsight is always perfect.)