"Competent" on the object level - they are the people that are really good at the technical aspects of their job, but really bad at reading social cues or playing the political game. When they leave to found startups (and I've done this, as a Clueless), they are the ones who build a brilliantly engineered product that nobody wants, or stumble upon a hot idea only to get forced out by a VC's termsheet that they didn't understand, or they become the richest man in the world and then accidentally buy Twitter for $43B.
If you believe that starting a company is a pure meritocracy based on how good you can build a product, you are almost by definition Clueless.
Or is your conclusion one that the Sociopaths want you to come to? Hence you go back to support their org rather than compete!
Overcoming that fear of failure and finding some Losers to help your new startup, according to the GP theory, I guess labels you as a Clueless turned Sociopath, but if you swap terms to 'Middle Manager turned CEO' I think it becomes more of an enabling perspective. (One reason I think the negative labels here can hurt folks' ambitions!!)
If you believe that starting a company is a pure meritocracy based on how good you can build a product, you are almost by definition Clueless.