This is a nice piece overall but, having seen founders negotiate their splits countless times over nearly three decades, I would add that such negotiations tend to be more nuanced than equal splits in most cases.
Idea people may not be able to proceed without solid technical people but what they do or don't have to give them for their services is always governed by supply and demand. An exceptional technical person who will drive a company will get an equal split (or more) but someone whose skills can be supplied by a good number of people will likely get far less. Strong technical expertise does tend to be hugely important in a typical startup but is only marketable consistent with what people are willing to pay for it in light of other alternatives.
So too with idea people. Abstract ideas may not have much value but many of the best ideas come from those "in the field," i.e., who have worked extensively in a given area and have special insights about how, e.g., customer pain points can be addressed effectively. Such ideas can be incredibly valuable and they do not necessarily come from technical people. They can come from managers, from sales people, or from a broad variety of sources - even from those with a technical background who later moved into sales or management and who combine their skill set with their experience to derive special insights. When people like that want to found a company, they may lack the particular technical expertise to execute on the project but they will know enough about the industry to know where to find the best candidates to fill such a role. That may result in a 50/50 deal but it could easily result in all sorts of splits, even if one of the roles is prominent enough to be called "technical co-founder."
So, as a technical founder, you should push for as large a split as your personal qualities can command but you should not use any arbitrary formula for determining splits. The rule is and always will be to assess the situation based on the real value each person is contributing and this often leads to a wide range of founder splits that are far from equal yet are perfectly suitable for the persons involved.
That said, this again is a fine piece reminding those with technical skills not to sell themselves short in dealing with business people. There are all sorts of hustlers out there who are more than willing to take advantage of you and, if you do not value yourself properly, you will likely fall victim to them. If people really do have valuable things to contribute, however - whether on the business or on the technical side - then the process is not really that adversarial because smart people will know an opportunity when they see it, whether or not they get equal shares in the venture, and they will usually work these things out in a way that is amicable.
I definitely agree that 50/50 is nowhere near a hard and fast rule. The split depends on how long the company has been around, how much progress has already been made, etc.
The larger point I was trying to get across is the discrepancy between the amount of value many businessy types ascribe to technical skills and the actual value (at least from my perspective).
If the only progress you've made on your company is the initial idea, I really do believe that the you'll up your chances of success significantly if the split is close to 50/50. The odds that you're even going to end up succeeding with the same idea is pretty low. At that stage, you really want to build a team of equals, not get employees.
I think the problem is extrapolating from simple examples used to illustrate thing.
eg Rich Dad or similar: You have an idea for a company. You create the company and deposit $10k in it's account. You bring on a programmer to build the project paying him in equity. The company could be worth $100m in a few years, so his 10% is better than a salary.
I'm sure parallel toy ideas exist in people's minds about investors. If someone puts $1m into a company that's still mostly an idea and a prototype, it doesn't seem all that far fetched that the investor would expect to basically own the company. What have the founders contributed? An idea and 6 month work. What has the investor contributed? $1m.
In the absence of actual experience, people develop biases based one imagined experiences where they are the hero. I don't mean that in a bad way. Everyone does it. It's hard to see an outside perspective unless you encounter it.
"someone whose skills can be supplied by a good number of people will likely get far less."
If your idea is so easy to implement that it can be done by any cheap programmer, it's probably going to be hard to defend yourself against competition. Ideas like that aren't worth very much, even if they are correct and very clever, because they're so easy to duplicate.
Idea people may not be able to proceed without solid technical people but what they do or don't have to give them for their services is always governed by supply and demand. An exceptional technical person who will drive a company will get an equal split (or more) but someone whose skills can be supplied by a good number of people will likely get far less. Strong technical expertise does tend to be hugely important in a typical startup but is only marketable consistent with what people are willing to pay for it in light of other alternatives.
So too with idea people. Abstract ideas may not have much value but many of the best ideas come from those "in the field," i.e., who have worked extensively in a given area and have special insights about how, e.g., customer pain points can be addressed effectively. Such ideas can be incredibly valuable and they do not necessarily come from technical people. They can come from managers, from sales people, or from a broad variety of sources - even from those with a technical background who later moved into sales or management and who combine their skill set with their experience to derive special insights. When people like that want to found a company, they may lack the particular technical expertise to execute on the project but they will know enough about the industry to know where to find the best candidates to fill such a role. That may result in a 50/50 deal but it could easily result in all sorts of splits, even if one of the roles is prominent enough to be called "technical co-founder."
So, as a technical founder, you should push for as large a split as your personal qualities can command but you should not use any arbitrary formula for determining splits. The rule is and always will be to assess the situation based on the real value each person is contributing and this often leads to a wide range of founder splits that are far from equal yet are perfectly suitable for the persons involved.
That said, this again is a fine piece reminding those with technical skills not to sell themselves short in dealing with business people. There are all sorts of hustlers out there who are more than willing to take advantage of you and, if you do not value yourself properly, you will likely fall victim to them. If people really do have valuable things to contribute, however - whether on the business or on the technical side - then the process is not really that adversarial because smart people will know an opportunity when they see it, whether or not they get equal shares in the venture, and they will usually work these things out in a way that is amicable.