The title of CEO communicates the position of authority and responsibility. If you're the lead person in the company, then you should claim it with pride. Why would you admit that you're company is too small and undeserving of executive titles and status? Are you missing out of any business because of that?

If you think your company is too insignificant, than that's all you'll ever be. ;)

Lately I've been using Software / System Architect or some variant thereof.

I am in a same situation here:I am in the Accounting industry which is quite conservative,and since i may have to go back to public,i really don't want the whole-CEO,PRESIDENT,VP,FOUNDER thing on my resume-This is just a 3 person company that does financial analysis. I am sort of confusted what title to use

Hi All,

Good Question!

Some 'food for thought'

Titles can actually be quite important. What 'name' you choose to present yourself can influence, even define the impressions your clients and customers get when they deal with you, and your company.

I've seen a toy maker call himself the 'Chief Funmaker'. I've seen a games designer call himself 'Maker of Kings'. I've seen a ad agency owner call herself 'Marketing Princess of the Frozen Northlands'. What you choose for yourself and your business should reflect your marketing policies, your business philosphy, your personality, depending on your market, and how you feel about your business.

How about 'Grand Commander of the Code', or 'Chief Geek and Overseer'? :)

Hope this provides some spurs to your thinking.

Titles are only good for stroking your own ego. Last year I wrote an article on the subject: "If you are in a startup and have a title, you are not doing enough work…"

Founder or co-founder is the best darn title you can give yourself, because to the world it says:"I put my a$$ on the line and if this fails, it is my fault". One of the most successful startups I have ever worked in had two founders who never bothered to have titles. We knew them as Mark and Joel. I knew what their corp titles were, because I had to file annual state corp docs.

Don't have one and don't use one. Down here I'd be colloquially known as the "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer" == "The Poor Sucker Who Has to Do Everything".

"Director" is one I found had a nice connotation when I saw it used recently.

If pressed, I use "President" or "Founder". Chief Executive Officer is inaccurate since it is only one of the many hats you end up wearing when running a small company.

I call myself "Creator and main developer"

At my startup, HubSpot, we were reluctant to focus at all on titles when the company started.

We just called ourselves "Founder". Later, it became necessary to have more specific titles (my co-founder is CEO and I'm CTO).

Co-founder in our case (iPhone app product company with 5 people).

I agree with the reluctance to use 'CEO' until you've got something to be 'Chief' of.

'Founder' sums it up nicely! Describes accurately, ages well and feels devoid of pretension.

This is actually a good question. From 1-9 employees, I think it is right for the founders to refer themselves as Founders or Co-founders. When you get into the 6-20 employee range, it's ok to give the leader the CEO title and the senior engineer the CTO title. In general, I would suggest always starting out with lower titles (Director, VP, General Manager, etc) so as to avoid the CxO lunacy and provide for upward movement.

As much as I would just like to explain "I'm the boss, applesauce," I end up describing my role in our small company as a co-founder and Head of Operations. As much as we use titles around here anyway, it's mostly just in my email signature.

Our CTO/CIO/Lead Developer/what have you prefers the all-encompassing title of Software Architect.

CEO. What does CEO mean? I'm responsible for the company. Its really important to have a single point (= CEO) of responsibility at the top.

Although I say founder if i'm chilling with startups, but CEO for "public facing" stuff. I usually say I work for my startup if someone asks me casually.

My business card and our company's "about" page say I'm the CTO, but I don't use the title in normal conversation -- just like I never used to refer to myself as Senior Software Development Engineer back when that was my title.

I think the only people that find "big" titles in small companies strange are owners of small companies. If you talk with anyone who isn't used to startups, it's much easier and more professional to say "I'm the CTO" than "I handle the technical stuff".

There's nothing magical about having a C-level title. It's only become that way in recent years when CEOs started getting paid much more than they were worth. :)

I'm with Keith on this one - I only use "Founder" and occasionally "President," because I don't feel I've earned "CEO" status until the company has made it big.

I've thought about going with something "Cool" (like "Lead Ninja," etc), but I feel it would be hard for potential clients to take me seriously. (there's a related thread on this topic)

In my blog posts I have referred to myself as the official Geek In Chief. I am speaking mostly to a non-technical crowd and am not a subject matter expert in their field (my wife is) so I thought that would define my role nicely.

I also want to deflect attention away from the fact that the website in questions is a business venture since a good portion of my user base comes from academia and may chaff over profiting from them.

'Founder' is a good formal title for the entrepreneur running a startup. If used when appropriate to have a title it's accurate, positive, avoids pretension, and wears well over time.

I don't have a title, and until now, I hadn't even thought about it.

But if I was officially asked, I'd probably say either owner or partner.

Is it only me or does everyone think "CEO" is rather funny title for a small startup.

It's mostly you... and other small startups. I had the same dilemma when I first started, and just decided to avoid titles all together. I mean, how can you be a CEO of 3 people? Seems awfully silly.

The good news is, most people you work with aren't going to say "oh, this guy thinks he's all big and fancy because he has a title of CEO? Ooooooh, I'm impressed." They get it, and the title accurately describes the roles and responsibilities.

Personally, I never went with that title, and instead have two titles:

• Managing Partner, Inedo - because Inedo is run with a partnership/up-or-out sort of mentality, I believe this title reflects what my role is best and conveys a little bit of the culture

• President, Inedo Media - I suppose I could have gone CEO, but like you, felt CEO might have come across as pompous

I prefer going with "teh shit" ;)

but more seriously it does bother me when someone calls them self CEO. I don't see anyone as a CEO until you are a publicly traded company. Till then either Owner, Principal or something more to that degree.

If I have to use a title I go by "Marketing Leader" even though I'm a one person business. Otherwise, I don't use one.

I call myself "project manager", "owner" or something like this. With the legal form of my company, my name is in the company name anyway, so project manager, developer will do.

This is a good read as a way of thinking to decide on something like this: you're a little company, now act like one.

I use "owner" or "researcher" depending on the context. The "CEO" thing is something I like to avoid.

My partner and I have taken on titles that reflect our main roles. Since I handle the technical side of the house, I use "Technical Director". My partner handles the creative side, so he's uses "Creative Director". On our corporate documents, I'm listed as CEO, but since our business is a two-man show right now, it seems a little pretentious to use CEO as my public title.

Fm, on the same lines here is another question posted here which does address the same theme.

Personally I think CEO is perfectly fine no matter how small a venture might be or how experienced or inexperienced the person might be. Just because it's small as you say, doesn't mean it's not a real company. It means they're running the show.

I do think it's important though to have titles match the experience of the individuals in other positions. So someone who really has Director of Marketing experience to be called a CMO at a small company doesn't make sense, for example, which I've seen.