[cesart]

In the company I co-founded, for the longest time the business cards of me and my three co-founders said just that: "Co-founder." Once we were to a good place and were profitable (and the REAL work started), action items began to fall by the wayside, despite the proficiencies we all knew we had (you've heard the phrase "if everyone is responsible, then no one is responsible").

Internally—not to anyone else—we designated CEO, CTO, CMO and COO designations. It wasn't about titles, it was about a mindset; that's when things started getting done again. It wasn't about ego at all. It wasn't about getting off from having a title on my business card (in fact, we didn't re-print new cards because we didn't want to spend money on new cards, hah!).

Our decision was about highlighting our proficiencies and giving each other the power to take ownership of different aspects of the business we owned together. We could give a shit if people were impressed with a title on a piece of paper.

[jacquesm]

That sounds about ideal, a gradual and natural transition to formal roles after building up a track record.