Great founders actually build.

Primary Evaluation Metric: The interviewee identifies a startup team's ability to internally build product prototypes as a critical success factor.

• Positive Indicators: Founders who are technical engineers, scientists, or capable of constructing their own demos.
• Negative Indicators (Red Flags): Reliance on external development or tools that limit scalability.

Specific Red Flag Scenarios Identified:

• Outsourcing: Hiring agencies or external engineers to build the core product.
• Premature Abandonment of Development: Claiming product building is unnecessary to prove the startup idea.
• Scalability Constraints: Relying on no-code solutions that may fail to support long-term growth.

Core Thesis: Successful startups are fundamentally built by founders who possess the technical capacity to create initial prototypes themselves; delegating this function entirely is a warning sign.