I would strongly recommend you just hire somebody if you can't do it yourself. Most ideas really won't cost that much to do in india via Elance / odesk if you are smart about hiring well regarded companies and you make very detailed specs. Sure, there may be maintenance costs and undoubtedly, there are things you forgot to put in the specs that will will cost you something down the road, but not having a partner is a huge benefit because you can do it your way, without constantly butting heads or bearing down on your unpaid programmer partner.
Plus, getting somebody to code it "for equity" leads to all kinds of problems down the road. They end up resenting you because more than likely they are busting their ass to code while you seem to be not contributing much. Regardless if that is true or not, many developers end up getting that sinking feeling and I have seen numerous numbers of these "idea man + coder" relationships fail. I have also seen, ink freshly singed on the contract, the tech lead start with a bang and fade with a whimper, as a month down the road they get too lazy / distracted / or better paying offer and can no longer work on your idea but they may still string you along telling you its going great! Regardless of how its going you already gave them equity via your contract so it becomes tough to separate. Sure there are all kinds of things you can put in there about awarding equity on completion of certain milestones etc but they will more than likely demand some percentage up front, and who knows if it will work out. But they will always own a piece of your company if you go this route.
Lastly, and most importantly for me, I just can't justify the cost of "free" or "for equity" work. Say your idea is really good (which all founders must think or they wouldn't execute) and your meager company can actually bring home the bacon. If you give say 20-40% equity to your tech partner (or god forbid, 50%) - and your idea just turned into a $million+ dollar idea, guess how much you just paid somebody to implement it? could be 500k or more for something that would have cost you $5-10k to develop in india. That is not a bargain. If you really believe in your idea, bootstrap your way to a working prototype anyway you can, but retain 100% ownership at all costs. You will need all that equity down the line to play with the big boys (Angels and VCs if you go that route). Beg and borrow money from friends and family or credit cards to make it happen if you need to.
Plus, getting somebody to code it "for equity" leads to all kinds of problems down the road. They end up resenting you because more than likely they are busting their ass to code while you seem to be not contributing much. Regardless if that is true or not, many developers end up getting that sinking feeling and I have seen numerous numbers of these "idea man + coder" relationships fail. I have also seen, ink freshly singed on the contract, the tech lead start with a bang and fade with a whimper, as a month down the road they get too lazy / distracted / or better paying offer and can no longer work on your idea but they may still string you along telling you its going great! Regardless of how its going you already gave them equity via your contract so it becomes tough to separate. Sure there are all kinds of things you can put in there about awarding equity on completion of certain milestones etc but they will more than likely demand some percentage up front, and who knows if it will work out. But they will always own a piece of your company if you go this route.
Lastly, and most importantly for me, I just can't justify the cost of "free" or "for equity" work. Say your idea is really good (which all founders must think or they wouldn't execute) and your meager company can actually bring home the bacon. If you give say 20-40% equity to your tech partner (or god forbid, 50%) - and your idea just turned into a $million+ dollar idea, guess how much you just paid somebody to implement it? could be 500k or more for something that would have cost you $5-10k to develop in india. That is not a bargain. If you really believe in your idea, bootstrap your way to a working prototype anyway you can, but retain 100% ownership at all costs. You will need all that equity down the line to play with the big boys (Angels and VCs if you go that route). Beg and borrow money from friends and family or credit cards to make it happen if you need to.