Ask HN: How to set up a web agency as a non-programmer?

As long as you are good at business development and client relations, you don't really need to be a programmer in order to build a web agency. You can always have a co-founder who is a programmer, or consider outsourcing. But ye, you do need to have the in depth understanding of business layer, i.e. you must be able to communicate effective with both the clients and the programmers to bridge the connection.