Re:Evolution of my role as a founder CTO
by beagle3 on Friday December 11, 2020 @04:33PM
(#25391331)
In my first startup (circa 2000 or so), no one had a title except the CEO (because ... someone needed to be a CEO, as you mention in another reply).
However, when I was on a roadshow through Silicon Valley, almost everyone I met (a few tens of people over a month) kept asking "so, what's your title" and writing it on the title-free business card I just gave them. One of the conclusions of that roadshow was that business cards HAD to have a title; I added "CTO", one of my co-founders had 2 stacks ("VP Product" and "VP R&D") which he used depending on who they were meeting. We both did the same kind of work.
My conclusion would be "don't have titles internally - but have some consistent externally visible titles for those people you meet who need them".
I haven't needed to do a roadshow since then, I don't know if that's still common in the valley - but that ritual of asking for my title and writing it on the just-received title-free business card was so prevalent, that I assume some people would still look for that.
However, when I was on a roadshow through Silicon Valley, almost everyone I met (a few tens of people over a month) kept asking "so, what's your title" and writing it on the title-free business card I just gave them. One of the conclusions of that roadshow was that business cards HAD to have a title; I added "CTO", one of my co-founders had 2 stacks ("VP Product" and "VP R&D") which he used depending on who they were meeting. We both did the same kind of work.
My conclusion would be "don't have titles internally - but have some consistent externally visible titles for those people you meet who need them".
I haven't needed to do a roadshow since then, I don't know if that's still common in the valley - but that ritual of asking for my title and writing it on the just-received title-free business card was so prevalent, that I assume some people would still look for that.