Some aspects: - Stretch candidate: A great hire for most seed/A startups is someone who is a great Director at a slightly later-stage co and wants to move to V

Some aspects: - Stretch candidate: A great hire for most seed/A startups is someone who is a great Director at a slightly later-stage co and wants to move to VP or C (marketing, product, whatever). They still know how to actually work, have ownership + management experience, are hungry, and want that next title. So Director -> "VP of X" is a good leap for them. Likewise, a regular leader or area leader ("Director of Content Marketing") -> Director. - Room: At the same time, it's useful to keep 1-2 slots above any role. As things progress, you may want to grow the team. You can give the current person a promotion if they're rocking it and looks like they can keep growing with the company. Conversely, if they're good but too risky for them to own that next 10X of growth, this gives you a chance to hire above them without firing them. (Chance they'll still leave / be replaced, but at least this way everyone walks away a winner without 1-2q of business disruption.) - Authority: Title do communicate internally + externally who owns X, which simplifies collaboration & decision making. Hierarchy of titles and how they cover ownership areas matters here, vs. what they precisely are. And yeah, "Head of X" is a good placeholder until a clearer structure makes sense. Ex: senior engineer, and unclear if they'll focus more on VP Eng, Architect, Tech Lead, etc. as team grows. Individuals may prefer this for themselves b/c they may not know themselves what they want to do next in general. Conversely, doing this badly means: Someone may reject the job, drama / quitting right when you're growing, trickier compensation, ... .