Oh, don't get me wrong. I think all founders should know how to code. But I think the notion that an amateur coder without real experience can launch a successful tech startup on their own is naive. You really need someone, either a co-founder or employee, with real technical knowledge and experience.
I think the assumption that coding will be a core competency & the company's success hinges on its quality is not necessarily true.
Think of betterworldbooks.com. I'm sure that code is very important to them. They probably have great programmers working there. But, going to campuses, exciting students and organising fund-raising book collections is probably more their core competency. Zappos needed great software, but it wasn't necessarily technical prowess that made them successful, their customer service seems to the the credit. There are many web startups which are e-commerce companies at core. AirBnB, from what I read, is an impressive startup, but the problems they solved to get it going where not primarily technical. They are taking advantage of opportunities that technological advancements have created and have big, important technological components to them (compared to restaurants, shops, dental practices..), but they are not pure technology companies.
Being an amateur level programmer (can code an e-commerce site) could let someone have a go at a lot of potential ideas. You probably can't be Google or Paypal but you might be a Woot! or something.
