Why Founders Shouldn’t Rush To Take The CEO Title

If you don't want these responsibilities as the business grows, then you are doing both yourself and your business a disservice.

I had the same title for over 10 years after I started Acceleration Partners: Founder and Managing Director. I was reluctant to change it because I liked that it was understated. A friend of mine calls himself "chief cook and bottle washer" at the company he founded, and I've always appreciated the humor and humbleness of that.

But once Acceleration Partners grew to over 100 people and got a global footprint, my title started causing some confusion. We needed Managing Directors to run different regions and areas of the business, so I finally changed my title to founder and CEO in 2018. Again, this was over a decade after the company’s founding in 2007.

When I made the change I took some time to reflect on what these roles and titles mean for a founder and an entrepreneurial business as it grows and evolves.