How to Find a CTO

5 min read

A CTO and an early-stage technical co-founder aren't quite the same search. A co-founder is often someone building the first version alongside you with equity as most of the compensation; a CTO is frequently a later, more senior hire who takes ownership of the whole technical function — sometimes for equity, sometimes for salary plus equity, once there's more structure to lead.

If you're pre-product, you're usually looking for a technical co-founder, not a CTO — someone willing to build the first thing with you, not manage a team that doesn't exist yet. Searching for 'CTO' too early can filter out exactly the hands-on builder you actually need.

If you already have some traction — early users, a working product, maybe a small team — a CTO search makes more sense, and the pitch changes: you're offering leadership of a real technical function, not just a chance to build something from zero.

Either way, the search itself works the same: describe what you're building and what stage you're at honestly, and let that description do the filtering. Someone looking for a ground-floor co-founder role will self-select out of a CTO-for-a-funded-team pitch, and vice versa.

Krooko's card format works for both — be specific about your actual stage, and you'll attract the person actually looking for that stage, instead of a mismatch that surfaces three months in.