On the plane back from Singapore the other day I was reading a book called “Start Something That Matters” by Blake Mycoskie. Blake is the guy behind Tom’s, the really comfortable shoes that I’ve grown to like.
The part of the book I was reading was tips about how he grew his company from a startup to what it is today. One of his tips for startup founders: To stop calling ourselves CEO on our name cards.
At first I thought I had read it wrong. I darted my eyes up a paragraph and re-read what he wrote and my eyes didn’t fail me. He said what he did. When I read on to hear why it hit me how much truth there was in what he said.
Why should startup entrepreneurs stop calling ourselves CEO on our name cards?
Because very often, unless you’re a huge company that everyone has heard of, calling yourself a CEO when you introduce your company as a startup tends to set off the impression that you’re a really small company. That the company is just you and some interns (and maybe an assistant).
Being a small company is nothing to be ashamed about, heck that’s what being a startup is all about anyway. It shouldn’t matter to you, but it may matter to other people that you might want to work with. Be it potential employees, potential investors or even potential business partners. Perception is just as important (or some would say more important) than reality. People want to work with winners and you owe it to your startup to do it justice by presenting yourself as a winner as often as you can.
I’ve never personally had CEO or any of these titles on my name card as a startup 7-8 years ago. All my partner Ming and I had was “Co-Founder and Executive Director”.
If I do a startup again though I probably just wouldn’t have a title on my name card. Just my name would do.
When people then ask me what I do? I’d say “My job is to <insert startup’s vision here>”.
That I believe would be a lot more powerful a statement than saying you’re CEO.
If however you’ve grown to a moderate sized company or at the extreme end you’re a very well known company like Uber, then by all means put on the CEO title in bold and emboss is in gold if you like. The irony though is when you get to that stage, you don’t even need to have a title on your name card and people would know who you are.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space