I think (as a technical guy now in the biz founder role) that this depends a lot on the context of the startup. Since we tend to focus on software startups here

I think (as a technical guy now in the biz founder role) that this depends a lot on the context of the startup. Since we tend to focus on software startups here, and that is more what I know anyway, I'll talk to it. I think the concept apply to other fields, but the exact nature of the technologies would be different. The biz cofounder needs to understand the technology as it applies to their business. Simple example: my startup relates to email. I have to understand SMTP, IMAP, and POP pretty well. I don't have to know how to build a mail agent. You need to understand your particular technology backwards and forwards. When you are out talking to people, you are going to get asked technical questions. You need to understand all the pieces of the system and how they work together. In a big company, marketing, product management, and even sales engineering may get away with just using marketecture documents. You can't do that. You need to understand the full architecture. A biz cofounder don't necessarily need to know how to code. Picking up a book and learning how to code won't help significantly. The value of a coding background for a biz person is understanding the development process, which kinds of things are easy to change (and which aren't), and (perhaps) acting as a sounding-board for the tech founder. Since you aren't going to pick those up without a few years experience, just learning to code gives less value. Learning the meta information about coding (project management, agile development (and what that means to both developers and product owners)), mythical man-months, etc, are more valuable. (All of this is, of course, my own opinion and worth every cent you paid for it, though I'm not sure it's worth every cent pg paid to host it...)