re: "if this even a possibility in practice?"
Liz:
YES, you CAN do this.
Take this same question you posted here in the Forum, and use it as the basis for creating a job posting on the main Upwork.com website.
Specify that you want to hire somebody, using an hourly contract, to help you find developers who will work for equity and/or help you find investors for your idea.
You will not be able to hire freelance developers here on Upwork for equity. But you CAN use Upwork.com to hire a consultant who will help you set something like this up separate from Upwork.
You may want to include the following note in your job posting:
"Maybe trying to hire developers by only offering equity will not actually work. I want to hire consultants who can be honest about the pros and cons of attempting to do things this way, and who can steer me in the right direction if this approach is likely to fail."
