I like to think about this "find a technical cofounder" stuff by imagining myself, a highly technical person who's entire work experience being on the computer - dropping everything to start a bakery.
Would my expectation be that I could find a great baker to work with me for free or half-salary? Or that I could learn to bake well enough to keep up with the competition out the gate? No - chances are I'd either have to shell out good money to hire a skilled baker who actually knew what they were doing (and probably fail a lot regardless based on my total lack of knowledge in selling bread) and/or spend a few years producing deformed loaves of bread by myself before this plan would work.
So for the non-technical founder to start a technology company without the money to hire experienced technologists I think its completely unreasonable to expect anything less
Yes, but if you started a bakery to sell a new item that no one else was making and were first to market with it you might find early success. This in turn would allow you to make a subpar marble rye because people are coming to your bakery for your unique new pastry not the bread.
Would my expectation be that I could find a great baker to work with me for free or half-salary? Or that I could learn to bake well enough to keep up with the competition out the gate? No - chances are I'd either have to shell out good money to hire a skilled baker who actually knew what they were doing (and probably fail a lot regardless based on my total lack of knowledge in selling bread) and/or spend a few years producing deformed loaves of bread by myself before this plan would work.
So for the non-technical founder to start a technology company without the money to hire experienced technologists I think its completely unreasonable to expect anything less