[muzani]

Equity is worthless if it fails. I've done a lot of equity deals and all of them have failed, except the ones I'm on board in.

If they're paying you for code, chances are you're not a passive investor and the company could likely die without your continued input. It might not be code, but instead something like interviewing engineers, support and maintenance, among other things, and would likely be "volunteered" work next time.

You'll have to factor that it's not a one-off deal. The risk goes lower with further investment of time and effort.

And while you say you believe in the product, it raises the question whether the founders can pull it off; a great product and half assed founders will usually fail, while a great founder and mediocre product will usually succeed.

Right now, it sounds like you're taking on the role of a temporary tech founder and can actually negotiate a substantial amount, more than you think it's worth. Unless you're going to take on a godfounder kind of role, you should probably take on an artificially low equity so you don't take the space of a really good tech founder in the future.