<i>And your technical co-founder probably doesn’t need you.</i><p>I guess it depends on the domain of your startup, but I generally disagree with this. Maybe it's because I'm focused on B2B scenarios, but - as a hardcore techie type - I absolutely see the need for a "business guy" to partner with. Marketing, sales, business development, fund raising, PR, etc.... all of those things are things that are NOT my strengths and would be better done by (or at least in collaboration with) somebody who specializes in those things.<p>Regarding sales in particular... maybe it doesn't matter so much if your startup is a webapp that either goes viral or doesn't, but if you're selling a product (or service) that requires face to face selling, I expect you'd be hard pressed to overestimate the value of somebody who's good at the selling side of things.<p>Hell, I'm actively seeking a non-technical co-founder, especially one of those "can sell ice to eskimos" or "can sell Bibles to the Devil" types. I may even go find a good used car salesman and see if I can get him/her up to speed on enterprise software. :-)