Ask HN: Should I just take CEO? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I just take CEO?

2 points1337h4xatl7 comments

Hey HN,

I see a pattern that the technical founder is CEO, always. Only one that deviated from that are Snapchat.

I don't like being in the spotlight and I am too much of a bad guy (lol) to be the face of my company.

But I'm the technical co-founder. I was going to go with Co-founder and Software Engineer and him with Co-founder and CEO.

What do you guys think? Should I just take CEO?

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Do you even have a product with users? Your question is pretty typical of a beginner who hasn't much experience building stuff for people. What you're asking doesn't matter when you're a 2 man team. Literally nobody cares about your title at this point.

Why do you say the technical founder is always the CEO? The technical founder usually turns to be the CTO of the company. The CEO has to be someone who can stand being always on the spotlight, has to be really good doing networking and has to put up with constant stress from investors and running out of money. If you don't like to be in the spotlight and you're too much of a bad guy to be the face of the company then don't be.

The skills and positions are drastically different. You're probably looking at Silicon Valley "chosen" startups as examples. In those cases, the technical cofounder didn't need to actually perform the REAL duties of a CEO - they relied on venture money and VC firms to do the heavy work. A real CEO, in a non-VC rocketship needs to be fairly different from a technical cofounder - especially if you're B2B.

what do you mean by rocketship? A growing start-up?

decide on the tasks of the ceo, hiring employees, being the face of the company, engaging with the media and users, if these jobs arent going to go to someone else (president), then decide who would be better at that.. and do u want that role?

for cto decide who would be better scheduling product timelines, making sure you hit your releases, making technology choices, and getting your developers motivated.

The thing about CTO is we would prob want to externalize that. I have a hard time thinking bobby of snapchat is the "real" CTO and not their VP of Engineering.

To be honest, titles don't matter. Authority and duties matter.

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