I'm not saying you don't have value to bring... just like the programmer who hasn't yet completed a major project, you might be brilliant, but you might not be. The thing is, choosing a bad/useless co founder is nearly always fatal to the venture, so people can be a little conservative.

If some business guy without money approaches me and claims he knows how to raise money, well, maybe he does and maybe he doesn't. How would I know? but if the same guy approaches me and can prove that he's already raised $bignum dollars from various investors, then I at least know he's good at raising money. I mean, that's not the whole of the business guy job, but it's certainly an important part.