[dean]

I agree. In fact, I would go even further and say that a non-technical person could come up with even better ideas because they are not constrained by what is technically possible. They think you can do absolutely anything with software. Whereas an engineer might (even subconsciously) be discouraged because they know it would take a lot of hard work to do the thing.

[chrissanz]

that could be true in some instances, in my experience (and the majority of the time), traditional marketers are not always thinking about the more technical opportunities (and more often than not, they are coming up with awful+old school initiatives). hackers on the other hand are always trying to figure out how to hack something for their own benefit... looking at packets to see if something can be reversed engineered or scanning services that are relevant + popular and could help grow your company. I've been in situation (multiple times) when the marketing person is not even aware of such places. This is why someone who has the technical chops and is dedicated to growth could be very interesting. I would not hire a marketing guy without tech experience