Tech Startup Organizational Structure
We are in the process of launching a tech startup. I wonder if there's a good way to form a good organizational structure. I came up with the following, but I don't know if it sounds professional or is in line with what a small startup stands for.
CEO
VP of Engineering
VP of Marketing
VP of Public Relations
Software Engineer
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Those look fine, but move on quickly to actually finding out what your customers want and then build it. No one will really care about your titles. They want to know if you provide value for them. – Tim J 11 years ago
1 Answer
If I understand correctly, then
- you're just starting out and there are 5 people in the company
- .... and 4 of those are VPs or CxO's?
Giving people big titles at company formation is problematic. Later on, as the company grows, some people may not work out for the new and much increased demands placed on them.
For example, your VP of Engineering might be good when it's a 10-man crew he manages, but at 30 engineers he's not working out as a manager. With the big titles he's already VP of Engineering, so there is no way to assign him another title or other duties without this clearly being a demotion. Public demotions are huge demotivators...
Aa a first idea, I'd suggest "Cofounder" for those who are that, and something relatively benign like "Senior Software Developer" etc for the rest.
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You are right. What about the CEO part? – Noah 11 years ago
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"Cofounder, CEO" for the person who's the seniormost day-today manager. Or just still "Cofounder" like the rest, and in meetings you just give a quick verbal introduction: "We're the 3 cofounders of *X*; Bob is Dev, Alice is Design+Marketing, Eve is CEO+funding." – Jesper Mortensen 11 years ago
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We have to put these in our profile. So do you think Cofounder, CEO; Cofounder, Marketing; Cofounder, Design, make sense? – Noah 11 years ago
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Yes, I think it does. – Jesper Mortensen 11 years ago
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With my little startup we're doing I use the title Co-Founder/Software Architect. While I'm a majority holder, and make all the business decisions, my primary responsibilities are to design the overall architecture of the program we're writing and also to code. Technically I would be the CEO or President of whatever, but I spend more time on code and design work than I do on managing business items since I got everything setup at the very beginning and as super-majority holder according to our agreement I have the final say no matter what, I prefer not to use the CEO/President role. – Randy E 11 years ago
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As we start hiring additional people and our product is at market making money I will be transitioning into a more traditional CEO/President role. If you spend too much time worrying about titles then you're liable to just have a D*** measuring contest in the end. – Randy E 11 years ago
