I posted a couple of minutes ago so I can tell you why I did it.
There are INCREDIBLE talented people out there that for several reasons never start a company.
Some of those reasons could be the lack of opportunities or because they just didn't have the chance of working on something cool or with the right people.
Why would anyone join? Basically for the same reason, in our case, we are a little ahead in terms of funding and customers, but as someone said: " 'A players' like to play with 'A players'".
This raises a question about co-founder responsibility and subterfuge though. I think in terms of ability, an 'A player' can probably easily tell the level of ability of another 'A player' that works in the same domain as them, but if you're thinking of bringing on a co-founder because you can handle the technical aspects, but need a business-person, can you as a talented specialist judge how good someone is at something completely un-related? I think there is potential hubris there.
My hope would be that they can bullshit their way through running a business as well as I can bullshit my way through code and infrastructure.
(yes I am looking, I have a small product ready for customers built with the exit intention of selling the product to another company at a later time. Basically the idea was to make a small business focused infrastructure toolbox. The logging product is working. I think chat and filesharing could be real easy wins. Slyops dot net. Contact link there works.)
There are INCREDIBLE talented people out there that for several reasons never start a company.
Some of those reasons could be the lack of opportunities or because they just didn't have the chance of working on something cool or with the right people.
Why would anyone join? Basically for the same reason, in our case, we are a little ahead in terms of funding and customers, but as someone said: " 'A players' like to play with 'A players'".