We've been doing the exact same thing for the past 10 years out of the midwest US, and I agree with everything you've said. We view technical startups as hybri

We've been doing the exact same thing for the past 10 years out of the midwest US, and I agree with everything you've said. We view technical startups as hybrid companies in terms of market and industry. They're half web and software, and half whatever it is that startup does. We team up with non-technical founders who are trying to solve a problem in an industry they know, and we bring the web and software [and startup] expertise. I usually tell founders that, as a best-case scenario, most developers and consultancies will build exactly what you ask for. The problem is how often you're going to ask for the wrong thing. One of the biggest values we provide is what we help you avoid building. Consistent with your experience, this has been working well for us. The other thing I kept thinking while reading the post, was that the clients who are likely to value non-coding software consulting enough to explicitly pay for it as a completely separate line item from the software development itself, are probably the same clients that do value and listen to the feedback from the opinion+coding consultants. So, it seems the author has found a way to identify those clients up-front, but at the cost of making the client find someone else to fulfill the coding role.