What title to have in a new business

Every startup has a unique situation. Our business has four founders with equal share and say in the company but distinctly different skillsets. We’re getting a first run of business cards printed this week and decided what content to put on the cards. One of those items is our “title”. So what title do you choose?

Traditional

CEO, COO, CIO, CTO etc. Aside from the point that these are “big (publicly traded) company” titles, how do you decide who is CEO, the top dog? Well, luckily we didnt get into an all-out brawl over this. Traditional titles are a bad idea for a startup or really any company with < 20 people in my opinion. If you are the CEO... what are you the CEO of? I am the king of my part of the apartment, but do I go around telling people that? They would laugh at me! Unless you have something substantial to be the "Chief" of, forget that title

What do you do?

I really like this approach. Too often, people give you a business card that says “Vice President” on it. What the heck is a “Vice President”, and why do large companies have so many “Vice Presidents”? Examples of this approach would be: Systems Architect, Business Developer, Masseuse. This is the opposite of titles that obfuscate what it is you do… a janitor is not a “Aesthetic & Hygiene Specialist” or something ridiculous like that. Like many people in start-ups, all of us are wearing many hats. We know how we occupy our time now, but if we put that on a card, will it be relevant in 6 months? Probably not!

Identical

This option would be modeled after W.L. Gore and Associates (maker of Gore-Tex) as described by Malcolm Gladwell in “The Tipping Point” (required reading for the latest wave of web 2.0 entrepreneurs). At Gore, everyone is an “Associate”. This eliminates the feeling that anyone is truly above anyone else in rank and allows you to focus on the business. For now, this is the approach we took. The only thing on our card in the title position is “Founder”.

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