Exactly this. I associate "company first, product second" with the kinds of organizations that seem to exist for the sole reason of playing company. The mental

Exactly this. I associate "company first, product second" with the kinds of organizations that seem to exist for the sole reason of playing company. The mentality that important decisions within a new company boil down to which friend gets which corresponding C-level title is just trivial to me. You don't have a product and you're wasting time on the unimportant things. Literally, your startup needs a CEO to guide the ship and a team who can help build the product. Not a CEO, a COO, CTO, CMO, a Director of Engineering, a SVP of Marketing, and who knows what other fancy titles you can come up with. Product is king. Without a product, you don't have customers nor revenue.