If the org is that small, there is no "CTO", fractional or not. Someone might wear the title to play dress up for VCs, LinkedIn, etc. but that's not an actual "CTO" in any way, shape, or form. It's actively dangerous to hand out a job title like "CTO" at that point in time, because now you have locked someone into a leadership position, who was hired mostly for their ability to be an individual contributor, and you won't know if they are actually capable of being a leader for quite some time. Even worse, you have set via job title expectations on equity, pay, etc. for them. Unwinding these mistakes can absolutely destroy a company.

J.Ja