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Can we stop with the self-aggrandizing CxO titles while we are at it? I've had someone introduce themselves as a CTO of a company that has 4 people. How many o

Can we stop with the self-aggrandizing CxO titles while we are at it? I've had someone introduce themselves as a CTO of a company that has 4 people. How many other technical officers are there for you to be the chief of them? It sounds ridiculous.

bdcravens 9y ago
Is that any worse than calling yourself a "founder" of a "startup" when you did little more than a barebones MVP you pushed to Heroku?
- mythrwy 9y ago
  That sounds like a lot of work. I've seen "founders" with a Wordpress template :)
matthewmacleod 9y ago
I get what you mean, in that CxO titles sound silly. But I'm not sure what the alternative is, really - particularly when you're talking about a startup that's hopefully going to be growing a bit. It seems when you want to talk about your team, you really want to say 'This person does the business stuff, this person does the technical stuff, this person does the marketing stuff, this person helps with the technical stuff…". Something like CTO is a convenient shorthand for 'person in charge of technical things'.
- Negitivefrags 9y ago
  Technical Director is a better term. (In fact, it's the job title I use). It says you are in charge of tech without implying anything about the size of your company.
  - rjsw 9y ago
    It also makes it clear that you are a director of the company, a CxO might not be a member of the board.
    - matthewmacleod 9y ago
      I would be wary of that one though; I've been 'technical director' in the past without being 'director'.
  - matthewmacleod 9y ago
    Yeah, that's not actually a bad idea. Also 'Marketing director' etc.; there are reasonable equivalents for other roles.
  - jaclaz 9y ago
    It depends, if you are directing only another person or two, which actually is/are actually colleague(s) "Technical Director" sounds also pretentious (to me at least). There is nothing bad in being few/small, of course but I often have this impression that the smaller the company is the more resounding are titles on business cards.
- malloryerik 9y ago
  "Joe's taking care of the technical side along with Jessica, Jenny does business, and Jorge handles marketing." There, no CxO stuff when the company is young. Maybe these people all know their "big" titles, but they don't call themselves that until it sounds appropriate. Until then, any business cards might as well just have names without titles. Why not? At smaller sizes formalities are unnecessary. Of course if you're trying to deceive people into thinking you're huge, this won't usually be the way to go. And on the flip side, being honestly humble can signal authenticity and trustworthiness. This surely isn't the only way and won't always fit -- not very "fake it 'til you make it" -- but at least it does away with ridiculous President of My Garage scenarios.
  - matthewmacleod 9y ago
    I would still think it sounds a bit weird to describe myself as 'the guy who handles the technical side' in a conversation, but I can see that it's an option if you're happy to be less formal! I guess I don't generally treat CxO titles as heavy-sounding as some other people do. I wouldn't consider it at all unusual to meet a 'CTO' at a moderately small tech company, and it makes it immediately clear to me what the person does. 'Technical director' is pretty good too; I suppose 'Managing director', 'Marketing director' etc. would all fit into the same general group. Maybe that's a good middle-ground.
    - aluhut 9y ago
      You could say: I'm responsible for the technical side.
boondaburrah 9y ago
In some cases, that may be your legal job title. If the 4 person company has incorporated as something like a C-corp, you have job titles to pick from the articles of incorporation form. Of course you can make up your own titles, but the department of commerce (depending on state) is gonna want to know who your C*Os are.

bdcravens 9y ago

Is that any worse than calling yourself a "founder" of a "startup" when you did little more than a barebones MVP you pushed to Heroku?

mythrwy 9y ago
That sounds like a lot of work. I've seen "founders" with a Wordpress template :)

matthewmacleod 9y ago

I get what you mean, in that CxO titles sound silly. But I'm not sure what the alternative is, really - particularly when you're talking about a startup that's hopefully going to be growing a bit. It seems when you want to talk about your team, you really want to say 'This person does the business stuff, this person does the technical stuff, this person does the marketing stuff, this person helps with the technical stuff…". Something like CTO is a convenient shorthand for 'person in charge of technical things'.

Negitivefrags 9y ago
Technical Director is a better term. (In fact, it's the job title I use). It says you are in charge of tech without implying anything about the size of your company.
- rjsw 9y ago
  It also makes it clear that you are a director of the company, a CxO might not be a member of the board.
  - matthewmacleod 9y ago
    I would be wary of that one though; I've been 'technical director' in the past without being 'director'.
- matthewmacleod 9y ago
  Yeah, that's not actually a bad idea. Also 'Marketing director' etc.; there are reasonable equivalents for other roles.
- jaclaz 9y ago
  It depends, if you are directing only another person or two, which actually is/are actually colleague(s) "Technical Director" sounds also pretentious (to me at least). There is nothing bad in being few/small, of course but I often have this impression that the smaller the company is the more resounding are titles on business cards.
malloryerik 9y ago
"Joe's taking care of the technical side along with Jessica, Jenny does business, and Jorge handles marketing." There, no CxO stuff when the company is young. Maybe these people all know their "big" titles, but they don't call themselves that until it sounds appropriate. Until then, any business cards might as well just have names without titles. Why not? At smaller sizes formalities are unnecessary. Of course if you're trying to deceive people into thinking you're huge, this won't usually be the way to go. And on the flip side, being honestly humble can signal authenticity and trustworthiness. This surely isn't the only way and won't always fit -- not very "fake it 'til you make it" -- but at least it does away with ridiculous President of My Garage scenarios.
- matthewmacleod 9y ago
  I would still think it sounds a bit weird to describe myself as 'the guy who handles the technical side' in a conversation, but I can see that it's an option if you're happy to be less formal! I guess I don't generally treat CxO titles as heavy-sounding as some other people do. I wouldn't consider it at all unusual to meet a 'CTO' at a moderately small tech company, and it makes it immediately clear to me what the person does. 'Technical director' is pretty good too; I suppose 'Managing director', 'Marketing director' etc. would all fit into the same general group. Maybe that's a good middle-ground.
  - aluhut 9y ago
    You could say: I'm responsible for the technical side.

boondaburrah 9y ago

In some cases, that may be your legal job title. If the 4 person company has incorporated as something like a C-corp, you have job titles to pick from the articles of incorporation form. Of course you can make up your own titles, but the department of commerce (depending on state) is gonna want to know who your C*Os are.