A long-standing relation with your co-founder is not primarily going to help you win in the end. You win by solving a problem that a lot of people have or will potentially have as a result of some major shift in how we do things. One of the ways to have an intuition about a big problem before most people is to be in the game. You get in the game by making things. When you make things you realize how little you know so you ask people for help. That's how you meet "kick-ass techies."

You don't need to be a kick-ass techie to start making things. Just hack them together.