
Ask HN: I'm an Army of One Man; what title do I use within my company? - olh
I am creating some business cards and, well, CEO sounds too corporate for an one person firm. Given that, I am planning to use no title at all; what is the protocol?
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timdev2
My father was an EE who for some years ran his own 1-man shop. His cards said
"VP Engineering". His reasoning was that he mostly used the cards at trade
shows, "VP" made it look like a bigger company, and while it made him appear
senior, "VP Engineering" suggested more technical credibility than "President"

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thejteam
Reminds me of something that happened at the small business I used to work
for. The business was family owned. This one guy was an employee from the
beginning of the company and was a top notch engineer. The company wanted him
in on all technical negotiations and trusted him enough to sign contracts. But
some of the companies that we were working with absolutely wouldn't talk to
anybody below the level of vice president. So they made him VP of Engineering.

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adamtaa
I used lead software developer on my business cards. Its true, it isn't too
stuffy, and it gives you just enough of an ego bump to feel good but not too
much. I skipped all other corporate sounding titles for the same reason you
mentioned.

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olh
This sounds in check with the reality. Not sounding like a big corporate nor
as an underground start-up.

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fegu
Owner

It signals both that you run the shop as well as the shop being small (since
you own it all, bigger companies are not as often owned by one guy).

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staunch
Founder.

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KoryFerbet
Technical Consultant or something similar. I would stay away from big titles
like CEO, CTO, etc... They tend to come off more pretentious than useful. The
truth is people will find out how big your company is whether you want them to
or not so you might as well be honest with them from the get go. I could see
the "VP" title being better, but I guess it really depends on what exactly
your company does and who you are handing the business cards out to.

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mjs00
" " (blank) also can match your plan of using no title. Make the design focus
on company name and perhaps a line of memorable text about what the company or
you provide.

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ifearthenight
One of my hobbies is going through LinkedIn and getting a chuckle out of all
the "CEOs". I get the idea that people want to make their company sound bigger
than it is but think in reality it's too see through. Go for something that
says what you do right now. "Developer" or "Manager" or something relatively
simple.

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samstave
Principal, if you're a consultancy.

Or just 'Lead'

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MarlonPro
I remember in The 4-Hour Workweek Tim Ferriss mentioned about making your
business appear to be big by not taking the title of CEO (among other tips, of
course). I will try to find that page and see what was the suggestion, though.

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dkersten
As Homer Simpson would teach us: Junior Vice President.

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thejteam
Founder. Unless you are a single-member LLC, then a lawyer will probably tell
you to use "member", especially on all legal documents. Mine did.

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sixQuarks
CEO/Janitor

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fezzl
Director, Managing Director, or General Manager.

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error404
I'd agree with fezzi....on "Director".

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caublestone
The Board

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dkersten
Founder

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skrish
How about Chief Hustler or just Hustler.

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kalpakd
Founder.

