Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages
venturefizz.com
Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages
1–10 of 35 posts
Re: Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages
#2I agree with most of this post but I think more often than not founders do not care about CxO titles. They just want to get shit done.
On the contrary people outside the company (investors, press, everybody) needs/wants to know which position you and your cofounders fulfill when you meet them.
Re: Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages
#3Yes, yes, and yes. Owner, Founder, maybe President, but CxO just looks ridiculous. Way too many one-person company CEOs out there. I believe this title grab began when CEOs started getting skewered in the media for being overpaid. End result, lots of free titles self-dubbed. I suppose that had the positive effect of lowering -average- CEO pay everywhere :)
Re: Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages
#4If they're not a rockstar, I'd make the case that they're your "development head / lead".
How do you even know if your lead developer is a "rockstar" or not--especially if you're the non-technical co-founder? Are you supposed to give him/her coding tests?
The term "rockstar" needs to die, now. It's a meaningless mumbo-jumbo term invented by someone who didn't understand what developers do.
Re: Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages
#5I've always believed that from a risk/reward, legal liability standpoint, being $NOBODY making $ GAZILLIONS was the ideal state. This trend is diametrically opposed to that approach.
Re: Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages
#6Isn't founder/co-founder a good enough indication that you do everything? and if its not implicit enough maybe I can just make my title CXO to get the point across :)
Re: Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages
#7"Minimize use of titles at early company stages" would simplify this a bit.
Re: Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages
#8Warning: Limit Break ahead. (Yeah, you thought I was always Limit Breaking. No, this is a real one.)
This is complete and utter douchebaggery and your IQ will drop 5 points if you read it to completion.
I'm sorry, but if I'm going to go anywhere near a pre-funding startup, I better fucking have some domain X over which no one will ever fucking be hired above me. Sorry, but if I wanted to work at a company where people could be hired above me without me having a say in it, I'd take the $200k+ hedge fund job and wouldn't touch your startup with my worst enemy's dick. This is how talent sees it. Accept it or fail at your own peril.
Job titles don't matter for fuck-all early on, but companies tend to have a weird dynamic. For a long time, titles don't matter and they're so inconsequential that they're never used (business cards are blank on the title line). Sure, someone might be "Chief Revenue Officer" but the only people who even know he has that title are the CEO and Board. When titles are inconsequential, you hurt yourself by bringing them up. So don't. The title is something you have, for later on when you need it, but not something you use-- at all. It just sits there for later purposes.
So, in the early stages, while it's important to have titles, I will agree that you shouldn't explicitly "use" them much. For a 10-person startup, they don't mean anything, operationally, except for where a person will be when they start to mean something. Through this, they motivate talented people to stick with the company even when things get painful.
And then... the company gets to a point where titles do matter and, by that time, I better fucking have one. Unless you can convince me that your company will never have job titles, in which case I don't want to be "that guy" who brings them into existence.
OP seems to support the idea of an early employee taking a pre-emptive hit ("Engineering Director" instead of "VP/Engineering" or "CTO") so other people can be plugged above him, often without his consent. This is because the real perk of being a VC is being able to hand out executive positions in other peoples' companies to your underachieving friends. Fuck that. That's bullshit. You'll never get talent if you take this guy's advice.
Re: Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages
#9"Minimize use of titles at early company stages" would simplify this a bit.
Right, with regard to use. Early on, titles mean nothing operationally. However, they're armor against people being hired above someone. Frankly, although I can't officially prevent it (unless a majority-shareholding CEO) if someone's going to be hired above me, I fucking want it to be a company-wide earthquake if it happens, in order to discourage the phenomenon where high-level positions are handed out as political tokens. It goddamn better be painful and dramatic for the company if some outsider is hired above me, to take advantage of my fucking hard work.
The reason VCs don't like to see CxOs already in place is because it makes it harder for them to use the company to hand out jobs to their underachieving middle-aged friends looking for executive sinecures.
Re: Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages
#10Warning: Limit Break ahead. (Yeah, you thought I was always Limit Breaking. No, this is a real one.) This is complete and utter douchebaggery and your IQ will drop 5 points if you read it to completion. I'm sorry, but if I'm going to go anywhere near a pre-funding startup, I better fucking have some domain X over which no one will ever fucking be hired above me. Sorry, but if I wanted to work at a company where peopl…
Most successful VCs are not so willing to risk their investment by putting incompetent people into executive positions.
The fact is that often the lead developer who builds the first version of a product does not have the skills and experience to be the CTO as the company grows. The first salesperson may well not be ready to build a sales team. The accountant might not have the breadth to be a CFO.
In addition to money, good VCs bring in experience that can dramatically increase the chance of success. They need some flexibility in the organization to be able to do so.
That being said, your comment is an excellent warning to people joining an early stage startup. Know what you want your role to be if and when the company is successful and negotiate appropriately.