> They aren't systems thinkers. They are the business equivalent of a bench researcher that simply pours blue stuff into green stuff, watches to see if it turns yellow, and then informs his boss of the result. In both science and business, most people aren't actually innovating.

Hypothesis: I think that this is the most important thing to a startup, regardless of whether you can write code or not. Startups need systems thinkers and innovators on the code side as well as the business side, people who can grasp a problem and come up with unique solutions. You can find these people no matter their background and this trait is likely quite tied into creativity in all its forms.