Should startups grant early sales hires inflated titles?

Lori Jimenez · Aug 2, 2023

Title requests should be treated like a discovery call to find the 'why', and being too aggressive on title early creates leveling problems a couple of years later

Later hires will question why they aren't at the same level, forcing you to unwind titles as the company grows

Scope: some early title generosity is acceptable if you're aware you may have to walk it back

20:53 20Sales: Why The Founder Has To Be The One To Create The Sales Playbook, When To Hire Your First Rep, Why Junior is Better Than Senior, How to Manage Sales Rep Compensation, How To Onboard New Sales Reps and more with Lori Jimenez, CRO @ WorkRamp

Harry Stebbings · May 15, 2024

Early-stage founders give out titles too easily and titles are expensive

Based on his experience watching founders hand out CPO or head-of-sales titles

20:59 20VC: Fundraising Wisdom that is Total BS; Dilution, Meeting Associates, Taking the Highest Price, Always Be Raising | Why Second Time Founders Are More Investable & Why Not To Hire People Out of College with Dan Siroker, CEO @ Limitless

Harry Stebbings · May 15, 2024

Handing out 'founding' titles to non-founders cheapens the founder designation and makes it harder to layer in more senior hires later

A junior 'founding marketer' blocks bringing in a killer later, because the senior candidate won't accept sitting under someone clearly below their level

23:01 20VC: Fundraising Wisdom that is Total BS; Dilution, Meeting Associates, Taking the Highest Price, Always Be Raising | Why Second Time Founders Are More Investable & Why Not To Hire People Out of College with Dan Siroker, CEO @ Limitless

Harry Stebbings · May 2, 2026

Handing out premature CRO titles is a sign of an immature founder; strong founders protect senior titles

A premature title likely leads to the person being demoted in two years and then leaving, creating another bad situation

17:04 20VC: Inside Clay's Sales Playbook Scaling to $100M ARR | How to Set Sales Comp Plans | How to Read Sales Talent Linkedin Profiles | What Profiles to Hire & Fire | How to Increase Performance and Speed in Sales Teams with Becca Lindquist

Chris Degnan · May 23, 2026

A company's first head of sales should be hired as VP of Sales rather than CRO

If the company grows fast they can become VP of Americas and stay at the company rather than face demotion from CRO

Scope: specifically for the first head of sales hire

72:01 20Sales: The $100M CRO Bubble: Why Anthropic Are Causing a Comp Crisis | Why You Should Never Hire From Salesforce or Service Now | How to Hire, Train and Forecase in a World of AI with Chad Peets and Chris Degnan

Chad Peets · May 23, 2026

If someone is functionally the CRO, giving them a VP of Sales title instead signals to the market that you don't fully believe in them, which hurts recruiting and customer credibility

The title carries credibility with customers and recruits; withholding it sends an unintended but received signal of doubt

Scope: applies when the person is in fact doing the CRO job

71:19 20Sales: The $100M CRO Bubble: Why Anthropic Are Causing a Comp Crisis | Why You Should Never Hire From Salesforce or Service Now | How to Hire, Train and Forecase in a World of AI with Chad Peets and Chris Degnan

Chris Degnan · May 23, 2026

Holding a VP of Sales rather than CRO title made it materially harder to recruit talent

It was harder to convince people to even come talk to him until he was promoted to CRO

Scope: based on his own experience at Snowflake

71:42 20Sales: The $100M CRO Bubble: Why Anthropic Are Causing a Comp Crisis | Why You Should Never Hire From Salesforce or Service Now | How to Hire, Train and Forecase in a World of AI with Chad Peets and Chris Degnan

Alan Chang · Jan 5, 2026

Head-of titles should never be given to external hires, only earned through internal performance

33:48 Senior titles earned internally never given to external hires

Harry Stebbings · Aug 2, 2023

A legitimate reason to grant an inflated title is external accreditation — the rep can sell more with a bigger title

Buyers respond to the seniority signal, so the title accelerates sales

21:52 Inflated title buys external credibility

Dan Siroker · May 15, 2024

Titles containing 'founder' or 'founding' carry real psychological weight and shouldn't be dismissed, because giving them mitigates the risk of early employees leaving to start their own company

In circles like the Bay Area where many of an engineer's friends are founders, being 'just a software engineer' creates a constant pull to go start something; 'founding engineer' is far more meaningful to that person

21:24 Founding titles retain engineers tempted to leave and start their own company

Harry Stebbings · May 9, 2026

Inflated 'founding' titles like founding GTM advisor are a major red flag in candidates

They're really just early hires dressing up the role

39:02 Candidates carrying inflated founding titles are a red flag

Becca Lindquist · May 2, 2026 · hedged

Taking a CRO title at a company under $1M in revenue is an ego play and shortsighted

When you eventually stumble the company will decide it needs to hire a CRO and you are out, having already shot your shot with no room to learn or grow

16:22 Inflated title harms the person who takes it