Everyone can recognize a great business and technical leader a mile away, so why is it so hard to find one? We all remember a few that are legends in their own mind, but this doesn't do it. In fact, the clue here is that the view in your mind is the only one that matters rather than the other way around.

Almost every one of us in business can remember that one special leader or executive in their career who exemplified the norm, who commanded our respect, and treated us like a friend, even in the toughest of personal or business crises.

I've asked many peers for the traits or attributes they saw in that person, and most will list the following positive functional traits of a good startup founder. Notice that only one of them (domain expert) is about their technical prowess. Thus, being a leader on the technical side is necessary, but not sufficient to be a technical leader: