“You're not going to ever convince some random software engineer to work on something with you that is your idea without paying them a lot of money, nor should they… It was working with Nate one-on-one for years.”

You won't convince a random engineer to build your idea — co-founders come from years of relationships

Cold-pitching a technical co-founder rarely works because the engineer carries all the build risk. Compounding relationships — staying in touch with old colleagues, helping strangers for years — is what produces the partner who'll equity-split because they already trust you.