I have been thinking this ever since I met Kashyap of Inkfruit at the first Startup Saturday I attended in February 2009. Apparently the founders of Inkfruit have titles like ‘Maharaja’ and ‘Nawab’ instead of CEO and that made me think if a Startup founder should really use a CEO tag?
While it most cases it makes no difference to what business one does, but we do have people who would frown at a CEO tag used in a 5 people company. I wouldn’t care much on what a founder labels himself, but if I am to propose a title, Startup CEO’s are ‘C2C’ (Clerk to CEO). That’s what you really do. The day you have a CEO tag, you are probably a mid-sized company, not a startup anymore 🙂
PS: You can always act like a startup. No matter how big you are.
I totally agree! The CEO tag is often looked down upon as it sounds bossy and regal. But the fact that the CEO/founder of a startup needs to build a business from the ground up, and needs to know and do everything, is often overlooked.
Well written! Agree to your thoughts.
The flip side argument will also hold true, Fake it till you make it. That is if you walk, talk and think like the CEO then you are already a CEO, not one day, not someday but right now.
I do agree that you don’t need to boast that you are CXO and hammer it on people.
Agree Arun, one problem with walk & talk like CEO in early days is that people whom you try to approach for outsourcing work for your startup or buy some essential services, jack up their rates or put another way, don’t give you a ‘startup friendly’ rate. #truestory