A founder should hire a fractional CFO when the financial complexity justifies the cost, not before. Hiring too early creates pressure to chase revenue just to cover the salary, which can distract from building a sustainable business.
If you hire too soon, it lights this fire under your ass to get the activity on the business development side ramped up because you don't want to have to pay out of pocket for that salary that's, you know, that burden salary that, you know, they're only handling X client dollars and you're paying Y dollars, which Y is greater than X, you know, so it really does encourage you to do that.
