[waleedka]

The CEO is the business guy. As a CEO, you don't get to code. Instead, you'll get to do the paperwork, answering phones, making cold calls, a lot of meetings, and a lot of traveling. It's fun at first, but gets boring quickly for technical people. You have to be comfortable with that role and must be a good communicator and marketer.

It's a fancy title, but don't let that tempt you against your good judgement. The founders of a lot of technology startups go out and hire an outsider to be the CEO. Google is a good example. Even Steve Jobs hired a CEO in the early days of Apple.

If you're in the very early days, then just put Founder as a title for all founders. You don't need to get into conflicts too early.

[zaidf]

For us, giving the ceo title actually helps. I think even for startup you need that one guy who gives constant thought to the big picture. At the same time, you don't want your chief coder to be day dreaming too much about all the non-technical issues.

So having a ceo as the guy who brings together everything is a good way to establish responsibility and SOME structure in the startup.

I will say that while most ceos of big companies don't spend much time coding, for 2-3 person startups it is very common to find the ceo doing coding and/or designing IN ADDITION to business work.

[ericc]

Makes perfect sense for a 2-3 member startup, where all the founders wear multiple hats and structuring the different efforts seems like an important undertaking.

[gyro_robo]

What cold calls is a CEO making?

[omouse]

A startup CEO? One who needs to get some PR for the startup?

[ericc]

Makes sense!