A few of us were discussing startups, and the point/purpose of a designation arose, and what it actually meant in a startup.
So far in life I have been a Founder, Co-founder, CEO, CTO, Vice president, Chief product Officer, Chief of Business Strategy,Executive Vice president, Director, Founding member, Advisor, Board Advisor, and a few other names I am sure I have been called 🙂 The only one I haven’t been is a CFO and COO, both of which seem to make little sense in a startup.
Anyhow the point being, irrespective of these titles, the role (except for 1 or 2) has remained the same, get the damn idea, convert into a business and make some money. I have done the same job in all, i.e build a business/team which delivers.
Which brings me onto the second point, when you have a designation in a startup, does it actually mean anything, who actually makes the decision in a startup. How when you sell/discuss with a startup do you know if you are talking to the correct person, a CEO maybe the one with a rich dad, he may have no idea about business, and COO, maybe just the second person in the team, but operations wise, no clue.
Are there better ways to actually designate startup teams ?, is it better to have no designations?, and does having designations too early cause team problems, imagine your friend is the COO, but 1 year down the line can not deliver, then what?, and why should the founder always be the CEO, at what point should he not? I know VC’s have their take on this, and will ask CEO’s to move aside, BUT what if their is no VC, what happens then, what is the criteria for a CEO/COO/CxO in a startup…or are they all on the same page, and should be all called “Startup team”?
Really interested to know how other startups deal with this, and when performance measurements which are done in fully fledged companies should come into play.
- Building a startup in 30 mins (well 41ish) – Iqbal Gandham - December 3, 2009
- Should Facebook and Twitter bother to make money? (Iqbal Gandham) - February 17, 2009
- How we got Nivio to Davos (WEF)…and won - February 5, 2009
In my viewpoint, designations do matter depending on how you use it. Some example scenarios that i can think of:
If the team is not very experienced, say fresh college grads, then by using a title such as cofounder instead of CEO, you can send out a strong evidence of maturity and willingness to take in a experienced CEO if need be. I think this willingness matters a lot to investors.
In more experienced teams, a VP designation instead of CXO leaves room for hiring a star player later and have a smooth transition. Even if you do not want to hire a CXO, you leave something for the newhire VP to aspire and move up to.
If the team is such that people are suitable for more than one functional role, then deciding a priori who takes what helps build both company and individual focus. Not only that it also helps members to set realistic expectations of how their role will pan out and where they will be in overall scheme of things lest there is friction between founders later which can be fatal.
For example, if one wants to build up an onlineBookStore starting with 2 cofounders, both tech and business savvy, then CEO and COO titles would be more apt than CEO and CTO. That way you make sure that each has proportionate influence and stuff to do in their bucket. Having the cofounder as CTO instead of COO may put undue pressure on the company to do more on technology side then they would have wanted to, just to keep the CTO’s role significant enough to satisfy his appetite.
Your thoughts on the above?
Its more a question of when you don’t have a designation in a startup, does it mean anything ? 🙂
In startups a level playing field without designations would at least prevent ego confrontations.
– Vicky
http://www.startupnews.in
Hi Iqbal,
You have raised one of the most important burning issue of any INDIAN STARTUP.
According to our company :
Get ready with the Blueprint of the company for the first 5 years.
And follow more of work oriented than designation oriented in the first few years with one descission maker.
In a Startp Company KISS is more better…
Dont ask me whats KISS !!!!
Keep Blogging….
In my opinion designation have no pupose/meaning in start-ups still IPO.As some one has said first 100 people of any start-ups are entreprenuers.Each employee contribute equally to success/failure and share start-up risk.Moreover designations may hide or shadow actual talent/natural strength of first time enterprenuers.Definetly designation do help in better managment of resources and give sense of control but that can be done by cyclying the roles between team members.Instead of fixing designation for whole life cycle of start-up we can give designation for few months/years depending upon situation.
I believe in most cases previous experience and interest of member in particular role plays vital role in assigning designations to team members.