Here's a possible solution that would hopefully indicate how serious your potential partners actually are.
They want your expertise. That alone, should be worth the 1/3 equity they are offering you. There should also be some type of ongoing compensation for your time spent. You mentioned that they have access to funding. Isn't any of this funding earmarked for developing the new product?
If they are willing to compensate you for your actual time spent, this would have some indication as to how serious they really are.
My initial gut reaction, after reading your question and statement, was your potential partners might be looking for somewhat of a free ride, without having to actually put any real skin in the game. Your "skin the game" is your knowledge.
And bottom line, you don’t sound overly impressed with their proposed product concept. That in itself, would make me leery of involvement (on a pro bono basis) even with the offered equity.
They don't have any money at this point, so getting compensated is definitely out of the question. Their promise of having the ability to attain funding is not solid as far as know (for certain), so I can't particularly go by that.
I'm not very impressed by the idea. It's an okay idea, but nothing super inventive.
They want your expertise. That alone, should be worth the 1/3 equity they are offering you. There should also be some type of ongoing compensation for your time spent. You mentioned that they have access to funding. Isn't any of this funding earmarked for developing the new product?
If they are willing to compensate you for your actual time spent, this would have some indication as to how serious they really are.
My initial gut reaction, after reading your question and statement, was your potential partners might be looking for somewhat of a free ride, without having to actually put any real skin in the game. Your "skin the game" is your knowledge.
And bottom line, you don’t sound overly impressed with their proposed product concept. That in itself, would make me leery of involvement (on a pro bono basis) even with the offered equity.