I'm not saying that only the tech matters. I'm saying that in an early-stage startup, only the product and the money matter. The tech only matters to the extent that it enables building the product. Sales, marketing, product positioning, feedback gathering, and investor relations can all be separate jobs later, after you have enough money coming in to support that specialization. In an early stage startup, if you're not building the product, you need to be the money person, so you should be doing all of that, and you need connections to do it well.
If you're a non-technical co-founder, the primary value you bring to the business is the people you already know, who have money. It's not your ideas and it's also not your visual design taste.
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I'm not saying that only the tech matters. I'm saying that in an early-stage startup, only the product and the money matter. The tech only matters to the extent that it enables building the product. Sales, marketing, product positioning, feedback gathering, and investor relations can all be separate jobs later, after you have enough money coming in to support that specialization. In an early stage startup, if you're not building the product, you need to be the money person, so you should be doing all of that, and you need connections to do it well.
If you're a non-technical co-founder, the primary value you bring to the business is the people you already know, who have money. It's not your ideas and it's also not your visual design taste.