[its_so_on]

Don't read too much into the following (I'm not really on either side of this) but I will say that many people who would make a great CTO have had 10 years to "just start your own and have proper equity." Have they done it?

almost invariably, not at all. Even though it is easy to find coders who have a legitimate claim to having 5-10 projects they did by themselves. This would mean they have "100% equity" in all of them. Then again, the 10 projects might have 30 active users between them.

Meanwhile, the non-technical founder in question has already outsourced a MVP, which is a product, gotten enough buzz for you to be reading their blog posts on hn, and you can join something that - unlike your own last ten projects - actually has a chance to make a great deal of sales in a real market. Whereas, in actual reality, if you took the idea and coded it up yourself without any further input than the concept pitch from the non-technical cofounder, it would go nowhere - just like your last ten projects.

Just saying... I would trade 5% of a company that raises a round at.. just about any amount, over 100% of ten 'companies' that never incorporate and have donation buttons which make a grand total of $76 over the same period of time.

It is easy to discount what the non-technical founder - or in this case owner - brings to the table. I wouldn't be quite so quick to do so.