[jpwagner]

Main takeaway should be this sentence:

"[In addition to the idea, bring to the table] something about how you are the best person in the world to lead its execution"

Also love the reference to the Aiken quote in the comments: “Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.”

[BenoitEssiambre]

Completely agree.

And I might add, even if you don't have any rare talent or skills and you feel you have "just an idea", you might get my attention if you convince me that you are truly motivated, that you will call people every month, clients and/or potential partners in order to validate the product and find real world data points that enable us to determine the direction the project should take or when we should pivot.

I might be interested if I can trust you are willing to do the important business and marketing work, the things that distract me from building and improving the product, and convince me you will do it with as much passion and dedication which I will put in designing, architecturing, engineering and coding.

If you bring this to the table and you look like you have good common sense and at least some curiosity about the technical side and technical constraints we will be working within (maybe, for example, you are even willing to learn to edit a few html files and check them in the repository, not to become the html guy, just so you get a basic understanding of this aspect of _your_ business) , I might just be willing to give you 50% of the business, even more in some cases!

[babarock]

something about how you are the best person in the world to lead its execution

Completely agree. From this point of view, people are not investing in your "idea" as much as in your person. There's real value to be had here. I believe that more than anything else, people believed in Bill Gates more than they believed in any idea he ever had. I'm not an authority on the matter, but it seems clear to me that IBM made Microsoft, and they did so because of how their meeting with Gates went, not just because "a BASIC interpreter would be the future".

I'll add that since your value is tied to the person it is not easily "stealable". It becomes vital to get a prototype up and running as fast as possible. You need to show investors/cofounder/contractors/... what you have in mind. Describing with words won't do your idea justice, a prototype would add a lot of credibility to it.