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Counterpoint. As long as you don't let these titles get to your head, its fine to have these titles. There are upsides to it. First, you start behaving like a

Counterpoint. As long as you don't let these titles get to your head, its fine to have these titles. There are upsides to it. First, you start behaving like a real company. A real company has CEO, CTO's etc. The sooner you start behaving like a serious company, the better it is for you. Second, your customers know who is who. It gives them a clear idea of whom to go to, to ask for. If he asks for a sales guy, then its CEO, Tech support, CTO and so on. There are downsides to it too. But as long as people realize that they have to handle everything in a 2 person startup no matter their title, its fine.

jacquesm 16y ago
I don't think there are any upsides at all, you are basically as realistic here as kids playing house, if we call the couch the living room, we have a house. But it's still play-acting, and the couch is still a couch. CEO is what you may want to be, but before you can do that you first need to become a company large enough to warrant one. Just like the cargo cult people try to build planes by laying out trash in the shape of one you can try to build a company by 'imitating' the structure of one but that isn't going to work, you have to imitate the core activities of a company to become one. Behaving like a real company means making sales, getting satisfied customers, building a product, dealing with challenges and making money. It's not going to happen by having a perspex thingy on your desk that says 'John Doe, CEO'. It also implies that you and your buddies are not 'self-starters' and that one of you is calling the shots, when in practice co-founders in most successful startups (not all of them, so this is not a hard rule) achieve stuff by working together, not by ordering each other around. If the 'sales guy' is out of the office who is going to take the sales call ? The CEO ? Surely not, it's no longer his job. Having people realize that they have to handle everything in a two person startup is exactly what this is all about, the effect of a title is more than just decorative, it changes the position the person with the title finds themselves in, it reduces their mental flexibility to the point where they no longer realize they have to handle everything together. See the article here that I linked for a fantastic example of that.
- braindead_in 16y ago
  Completely agree. You're not worth the prespex if you allow the title to reduce your mental flexibility. However if you let the prespex sink in and take responsibility of the company, of doing what it takes to make sales, getting satisfied customers, building a product, dealing with challenges and making money, you've got that 90% inspiration thing going. Now you need that 1% perspiration.
  - jodrellblank 16y ago
    The quote is 1% inspiration, 90% perspiration. (or 99%?).
    - braindead_in 16y ago
      There you go!

jacquesm 16y ago

I don't think there are any upsides at all, you are basically as realistic here as kids playing house, if we call the couch the living room, we have a house. But it's still play-acting, and the couch is still a couch. CEO is what you may want to be, but before you can do that you first need to become a company large enough to warrant one. Just like the cargo cult people try to build planes by laying out trash in the shape of one you can try to build a company by 'imitating' the structure of one but that isn't going to work, you have to imitate the core activities of a company to become one. Behaving like a real company means making sales, getting satisfied customers, building a product, dealing with challenges and making money. It's not going to happen by having a perspex thingy on your desk that says 'John Doe, CEO'. It also implies that you and your buddies are not 'self-starters' and that one of you is calling the shots, when in practice co-founders in most successful startups (not all of them, so this is not a hard rule) achieve stuff by working together, not by ordering each other around. If the 'sales guy' is out of the office who is going to take the sales call ? The CEO ? Surely not, it's no longer his job. Having people realize that they have to handle everything in a two person startup is exactly what this is all about, the effect of a title is more than just decorative, it changes the position the person with the title finds themselves in, it reduces their mental flexibility to the point where they no longer realize they have to handle everything together. See the article here that I linked for a fantastic example of that.

braindead_in 16y ago
Completely agree. You're not worth the prespex if you allow the title to reduce your mental flexibility. However if you let the prespex sink in and take responsibility of the company, of doing what it takes to make sales, getting satisfied customers, building a product, dealing with challenges and making money, you've got that 90% inspiration thing going. Now you need that 1% perspiration.
- jodrellblank 16y ago
  The quote is 1% inspiration, 90% perspiration. (or 99%?).
  - braindead_in 16y ago
    There you go!