You're absolutely right that finding complementary skills is important - but there's a gotcha there. For the most part the offers I've seen (and I haven't seen yours, of course) offer very little demonstrable value in return.

When you talk to a technical cofounder you ask them about what products they've brought to market, how long they've been building apps, what experience they have hiring and managing developers. All totally fair questions that tech guys are usually happy to go on about for hours on end.

But when you're a first time business cofounder, the skills you're offering to bring are usually untested. Unless you have a long work history in business development or sales, you're not bringing much tangible to the table.

Most of the non-tech cofounders I've been approached by have a full time job pushing papers as an accountant or, worse yet, are fresh MBA grads. There's nothing wrong with wanting to start a business if that's you, but I've spent many many years building up the exact skills you're asking me to bring. I'm not going to be learning on the job, I won't be making it up as I go. I'll be using real examples from my own work history to guide my technical decisions.

And they're going to come to me with "I have a great idea"...well, good for you.

It's not that you don't have an amazing idea, and it's not that you're going to fail. But if you don't have an actual track record in the things you're offering to bring to the table then I'm operating on faith. And you'd better be an AMAZING salesman to get me to operate on faith with a stranger.

Your skills aren't worth less than mine. I love working with great sales guys, marketers, and business partners. But if you are going to ask me about my app building skills, I'm going to ask you about your actual sales experience.

/endrant