All new equity is worthless. If you persuade someone to buy some it's a little less worthless and if you demonstrate value by generating revenue then it a little bit less worthless again but of say 1000 new companies, 50 may generate revenue and 5 may get investment and 1 might and that's a big might, give you a return on your money. Ultimately you need to pay the software engineer for the risk they take and you can do that in many ways but I'd say unless it's a technical founder who really is a founder with you - i.e, they said to you, hey I've got this great idea but I need help to realise it, then you need hand over money.