Startup Founders Are C2C

[annkur]

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.

[10dpd]

Unfortunately human psychology dictates that all human organisations must have some form of hierarchy, and 'CEO' is a label/shorthand for the person at the top of the hierarchy.

This is unfortunate, as having a CEO assumes having a board of directors which many smaller startups do not.