How should I describe my job title?

I'm the co-founder of a two-person startup, but I'm having a hard time coming up with an accurate description of my job for things like LinkedIn and business cards.

I handle all technical aspects of the company, so something like "Co-Founder and CTO" or "Co-Founder and Technical Lead" would certainly cover it, but I feel like those titles are somewhat pretentious, as I don't manage anyone. I don't want to seem like I'm trying to inflate my title, but I do want to convey that I'm making the technical decisions for the company.

So, what's a good job title for someone who co-founded a startup with no non-founder employees, who handles all technical decisions but doesn't manage anyone?

How about "co-founder ". That is the most neutral. Why do you need a title? There is not value in a title except if you want to change job, which I guess you are not. I was co-founder and CTO of a business and had that on my card, and honestly I always felt it was ridiculous. The last one I just put co-founder. Honestly it doesn't matter, it is not going to open you more doors, it is not going to help you get funding, it is not going to hinder your efforts. You, as a person, will make this happen, not your title.

Good luck

I was thinking of similar issue for sometime also. Apart from "co-founder", how about including "chief architect" since you are deciding on technical directions.

In the short term, I would pick one title, but possibly vary the title for the purpose of where you're putting it. "Co-Founder" on LinkedIn, "CTO" on StackExchange... probably get a small run of business cards with each. By all means put a list of your roles and responsibilities on the 'who' page of your website; it can help your planning to have them written out somewhere.

Really though, if you're formalising a business you need to decide on the company structure pretty soon. For my smallest startup, I was "Partner" and the other main guy was "Director". We assign other titles per-project (software architect, design lead, etc.).

Titles like CEO, CTO, etc. are really only meaningful when you have other 'EOs and 'TOs to invite to the board meetings.

I describe my title in a one-man company as "chief salesman", precisely because I got tired of seeing "account executives" on business cards.
I would suggest to lose "officer" and end up with something like "chief developer" or "tech lead" as you suggested or perhaps even "head geek".

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