Is the technology & development behind sites like Gilt.com & 99dresses.com (or, other merchandise or flash-sale sites) fairly simple to create for a "non-tech" founder with the available website building resources around the web (& perhaps some limited outsourcing)? Or, is it still recom

You can create an online web store using products such as shopify. However, to build a web app like 99dresses with its own business logic you need to be a developer with both front-end and back-end coding skills. It takes years to build this skill set.

1 - http://99Dresses.com isn't a flash-sale site. It allows women to swap dresses. Fundamentally different concept and market. 2 - Both of the sites you mentioned had tech cofounders. In the case of 99Dresses that took 2.5 tech cofounders, several years of iteration and a shitload of blood sweat and tears. Nikki Durkin is one of the toughest and most dedicated entrepreneurs I know. There is no way you're going to be able to replicate that in a couple of hours on http://Wix.com or Weebly or anything similar.

Both of those sites you mention were made with technical co-founders. To find a co-founder is not an easy task, but don't stop working while you don't have it yet. You can use Keynote to make the mockups and then show it to a cofounder prospect. Also you can start proving hypothesis using http://unbounce.com, and doing A/B test. This is something you should do before having to write the first coding line. If you take advantage of the time without a cofounder you will find someone faster than being in a couch just praying ;)

I have created websites from all the big companies like Godaddy, Weebly, Yola, Moonfruit, Wix, Webnode, Webs, Webstarts, Jimdo, Getshopped and Web for my clients. Recently I got redirected to Webstarttoday while I was reading an article. They also offer free websites and they have a huge collection of beautiful designs as it said in that article and after visiting http://www.webstarttoday.com, I really found that website pretty interesting in terms of user friendliness and the designs. The collection of the designs that Webstarttoday has it's really amazing and it's free for an year. It's amazing. One more thing they charge $1 for the sign up and you can start creating your free website and you don't have to pay anything for hosting as well. You can check their free designs on Pinterest also.(http://pinterest.com/webstarttoday/) If they ask for the Coupon Code then you can get it from their Facebook Busines page. (http://www.facebook.com/WebStartToday)

No. A "non tech founder" might be able to build a toy proof of concept. To build a system that handles scale reliably and securely takes a great deal of specialized knowledge. You will find people who will offer to sell you a pre-canned platform or build one on contract.  But without a technical person to evaluate these things and keep the vendors honest you are likely to spend a lot of money for what turns out to be incorrect technology.

We have developed a scalable Private Sales platform based on Magento. Not only it has all the features you find on all major private sales websites but it also has the full business model built in. You can check out Market Watch PR fort our latest private sales website built using this platform here: http://www.dailydealmedia.com/678marilynjean-debuts-into-online-shopping-for-kids/. For more information visit our website: http://www.annaconcept.com.

you could do this with drupal. try searching the drupal site for a flash sale recipe, including a walk through.