Having come from the social gaming industry and attended many a conference, this is one of my pet peeves. I can't tell you how many two-man operations I encountered where each person had a CxO title. It is utterly ridiculous.
There is no such thing as a CEO of pre-product startup. Get off of it.
31–40 of 46 posts
Re: There is no such thing as a CEO of pre-product startup. Get off of it.
#32No ego's, company first.
Re: There is no such thing as a CEO of pre-product startup. Get off of it.
#33It sounds to me like you're misdiagnosing the problem. The problem isn't too much hierarchy, it's too little! Your CEO friend needs to grow a pair and demote his CTO co-founder. Ideally, he would sell his co-founder on the idea of doing this voluntarily. This will not be an easy discussion. Titles and hierarchy matter in a startup because someone has to be able to make decisions in the face of disagreement. Decision…
Amen. Every group needs an undisputed leader. Otherwise they flail about and get very little done. CEO is the default name for that leader in a company, and using any other name would just lead to confusion when speaking to investors, press, clients, etc.
A small company (1-10 people) usually doesn't need any other CxO titles besides CEO.
Re: There is no such thing as a CEO of pre-product startup. Get off of it.
#34This seems superficially attractive, and it's hard to imagine too many people making a spirited defense of the 'all chiefs, no indians' job title inflation.
But there's a bullshit aspect to it that bothers me - it seems to be ignoring something basic that's being communicated when people insist on CxO titles.
Specifically, people who insist on CxO titles at some stage in a startup where it seems a bit pretentious may have a very good reason. What these titles communicate internally and to the board is something like:
"I am joining this startup and doing a buttload of work under the assumption that I will be the effective leader (or, CTO = effective technology leader) of the the company, and if anyone wants to make me step down from this, it will actually be a demotion and it will be an issue".
This doesn't mean "I will have a tantrum and leave". It means, "don't assume that you can seamlessly bring in a layer of management above me and this will fit my expectations".
This position may be a bad idea, I'm not disputing that. However, it may be what's contingent on someone doing a pile of work for very little money - part of their vision of the startup might be not suddenly acquiring a layer of people to report to who have been parachuted in after the hard, nasty work has been done.
If you want to make it clear that at any moment, the guy who thinks he going to run the company or the technical aspects of the company can have someone parachuted in on top of them, then denying them the CxO title is a good way of communicating that. That's fine, but don't pull this sophomoric shit where you pretend that people in small companies are insisting on these titles out of sheer ego alone.
Re: There is no such thing as a CEO of pre-product startup. Get off of it.
#35I'm not sure for all countries but I registered my company recently and the default title the registering process allocates is "Managing Director". Which seems exactly the correct term.
I doubt I'd bother changing my title unless I needed to have a division of responsibility. And for that to occur I would need a number of staff which would get confused exactly whom they should be talking to.
I think for most companies I have dealt with CEOs start to appear over 20 staff members which may be the level where communication issues start, and division of responsibility need to be clarified.
I know a few people who use CEO title in companies with 1-3 people, most of the time its a projection thing, more of a sales tactic than anything. For a few its an ego thing, but usually they don't last long in community groups as everyone gets sick listening to narcissistic comments and they isolate themselves.
Re: There is no such thing as a CEO of pre-product startup. Get off of it.
#36I think it's appropriate to have a title on a business card or whatever that describes your role in a meaningful way. "Principal", "Founder", etc. Corporate titles sound silly in small businesses -- I had my driveway sealed by the "President and CEO" of a driveway sealing business the other day. People in contact with customers should have flexibility or use multiple titles. If you're trying to get an audience with a…
Whenever I see a prospective startup founder with no product and no customers calling themselves a 'CEO', it triggers a little warning sign in my brain that this person may be too self-important to work with.
There are definitely times when you need the title to make meetings happen, so it's not a sure-fire guarantee of arrogance. But it's still a warning sign.
At the last startup I founded, both myself and my co-founder agreed to skip titles until such time as they were required. When pressed, we were both just 'founders'.
Re: There is no such thing as a CEO of pre-product startup. Get off of it.
#37This looks like it's a problem with job titles but it's really a problem with managing people. The job title is just the symptom. I have a talk with everyone who works for me in which I say "this is a startup, job titles are flexible, and everybody (including me) will have to revisit their role and title frequently. If you're OK with that, then great. If not, we should talk it through now so everybody's expectations…
I absolutely agree with you. I appreciate the author's advice, though I have a hard time imagining 3 or 4 cofounders doing fundraising when there isn't someone calling him or her self "CEO." (I personally take no special pleasure in calling myself CEO. If it confers more ability to control my destiny, then great; anything beyond that is an ego game that no startup founder has time to play.)
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Re: There is no such thing as a CEO of pre-product startup. Get off of it.
#38It sounds to me like you're misdiagnosing the problem. The problem isn't too much hierarchy, it's too little! Your CEO friend needs to grow a pair and demote his CTO co-founder. Ideally, he would sell his co-founder on the idea of doing this voluntarily. This will not be an easy discussion. Titles and hierarchy matter in a startup because someone has to be able to make decisions in the face of disagreement. Decision…
Exactly. The way I would put it is that this CEO is flunking out in his job.
If any executive (CTO or whoever) is not getting things done, CEO's job is to replace them as fast as possible. If the CEO is failing to do that, this means he needs to be replaced.
Ben Horowitz has an excellent post explaining the CEO job: http://bhorowitz.com/2010/05/30/how-andreessen-horowitz-eval...
At the end of the day any company needs real leadership. The one described in the article lacks it.
Re: There is no such thing as a CEO of pre-product startup. Get off of it.
#39This seems superficially attractive, and it's hard to imagine too many people making a spirited defense of the 'all chiefs, no indians' job title inflation. But there's a bullshit aspect to it that bothers me - it seems to be ignoring something basic that's being communicated when people insist on CxO titles. Specifically, people who insist on CxO titles at some stage in a startup where it seems a bit pretentious may…
If the main purpose is "reserving" the title for the potential future, wouldn't some kind of contract be more effective and less pretentious? Just asking.
Re: There is no such thing as a CEO of pre-product startup. Get off of it.
#40My preference is to use the title "Founder". It explains who you are within the company, and what kinds of decisions you are able to make.