When someone recently asked me, “What do you think is the biggest red flag when a founder says they need a CTO?”
Two extremely common ones came to mind immediately:

   
• No budget
• No product

Loads of people want to believe that they are ready to hire a CTO. Maybe they have a pitch deck, a vision, or even some early interest, but wanting to move forward and actually being ready are two different things.

The first red flag is no budget. Many founders want a CTO because it feels like the next step, but if there is no budget for senior leadership, it is often a sign the business still needs to focus on fundraising, validating the model, or bootstrapping the essentials. Expecting a CTO to work for equity or deferred promises is rarely realistic, and sets the tone for a misaligned partnership.

The second red flag is no product. I have lost count of how many times I have heard someone say, “We’ve got a brilliant idea! Now, we just need someone to build it.”
When there is no MVP, there is no user feedback, no indication of market demand, and, in that situation, what is often needed is not a CTO, but a Founding Engineer.

Before you go searching for a CTO, fractional or full-time, make sure you are not just looking for someone to believe in the dream. Make sure you have laid the groundwork that makes the dream worth building.

Until then, the best investment might be in focus, not titles.