Technical = Coder goes hand in hand with the narrow definition of 'startup' that's commonly used here. It's not meant to discount other engineering abilities, it's just a bit of jargon one needs to adapt to.
I looked at the word technical and instantly knew that it was suggesting the question if I write code. I am not a coder, I am familiar with it, but I am closer to the guy trying to build a company by getting a group of coders together. The point is that nobody should be offended, in fact it is even ok to believe your technical if other techs believe you are not. Any startup needs all the cogs in the wheel to run, from the simpletons to the most advanced, and we all should embrace the role we find ourselves in and change it if we believe we were meant for something else.
It's this very narrow definition that is my problem. Your Average Silicon Valley Co-founder can't even imagine that a company could not be about web or mobile apps. I find this apalling.
It makes me wonder whether Peter Thiel is right when he says that the Valley should think more about flying cars and not about 140 characters. I wonder whether the people in the Valley lost the ability to think about anything other than 140 characters.
It sure is a competitive advantage of other high-tech regions in the world: less (or different) tunnel vision.
