Designations and mapping a startup

A few of us were discussing startups, and the point/purpose of a designation arose, and what it actually meant in a startup.
So far in life I have been a Founder, Co-founder, CEO, CTO, Vice president, Chief product Officer, Chief of Business Strategy,Executive Vice president, Director, Founding member, Advisor, Board Advisor, and a few other names I am sure I have been called 🙂 The only one I haven’t been is a CFO and COO, both of which seem to make little sense in a startup.

Anyhow the point being, irrespective of these titles, the role (except for 1 or 2) has remained the same, get the damn idea, convert into a business and make some money. I have done the same job in all, i.e build a business/team which delivers.

Which brings me onto the second point, when you have a designation in a startup, does it actually mean anything, who actually makes the decision in a startup. How when you sell/discuss with a startup do you know if you are talking to the correct person, a CEO maybe the one with a rich dad, he may have no idea about business, and COO, maybe just the second person in the team, but operations wise, no clue.

Are there better ways to actually designate startup teams ?, is it better to have no designations?, and does having designations too early cause team problems, imagine your friend is the COO, but 1 year down the line can not deliver, then what?, and why should the founder always be the CEO, at what point should he not? I know VC’s have their take on this, and will ask CEO’s to move aside, BUT what if their is no VC, what happens then, what is the criteria for a CEO/COO/CxO in a startup…or are they all on the same page, and should be all called “Startup team”?

Really interested to know how other startups deal with this, and when performance measurements which are done in fully fledged companies should come into play.