"Should the equity share be contingent upon performance?"
Absolutely; it's hard enough for us experienced programmers to have much confidence that a technical hire will work out, you are presumably in much worse shape. That said, don't torture him about estimates and deadlines until he's really gotten his teeth into the project, who knows what monsters might hiding in an innocent corner of the code, especially as you stress it with the diverse demands of the real world.
As for how much equity: if he really works out it should be quite a bit. You need someone you really trust to make the technical side of things work and that's harder than it appears to most non-technical people (and the less drama you experience, the better he's doing his job).
As you note, finding a technical co-founder of any quality is indeed really tough; plan for compensation based on that.
Comments
"Should the equity share be contingent upon performance?"
Absolutely; it's hard enough for us experienced programmers to have much confidence that a technical hire will work out, you are presumably in much worse shape. That said, don't torture him about estimates and deadlines until he's really gotten his teeth into the project, who knows what monsters might hiding in an innocent corner of the code, especially as you stress it with the diverse demands of the real world.
As for how much equity: if he really works out it should be quite a bit. You need someone you really trust to make the technical side of things work and that's harder than it appears to most non-technical people (and the less drama you experience, the better he's doing his job).
As you note, finding a technical co-founder of any quality is indeed really tough; plan for compensation based on that.