[wpietri]

I would suggest people double down on point 6, "Find someone to help". If you don't have anybody in your network, pay somebody.

Why? Well, there are two abilities that are only partly correlated: coding and talking about coding. A non-technical founder can only ever evaluate the talking part. My approach to interviewing involves both chatting and pair programming. A surprising number of people are pretty good talkers and pretty terrible doers. Indeed, some of the best talkers are the worst doers, because they've had to become extremely good at talking to keep getting hired.

(As an aside, some of the best coders are pretty bad talkers, but those are not the people you want for a tech cofounder.)

So please, non-tech founders, borrow or hire an expert. There are plenty of people who sell their time by the hour, including former tech leads and tech founders. Like accounting or lawyering, interviewing programmers is a skill not easily acquired. When you need it, it's worth paying for.