Startup job titles, decoded for business undergraduates.

Titles are clues, not definitions

Startup titles vary because teams are small and responsibilities change quickly. Treat the title as an invitation to inspect the work, not as a reliable summary of it.

Common business-side paths

• Business operations: cross-functional projects, analysis, and internal systems
• Revenue operations: the process and data behind sales and customer teams
• Customer success: helping customers adopt a product and achieve a useful outcome
• Sales development: finding and qualifying potential customers
• Chief of staff: high-context projects for a leader, usually requiring unusual judgment and range

Read for three things

• The decisions you will own
• The tools and subject matter you must learn
• The result the company expects in the first months

A growth role may mean writing campaigns, analyzing funnels, building experiments, or all three. A product operations role may be strategic at one company and administrative at another.

Ask what a normal week looks like and what would make the hire excellent after ninety days.

Know when a title is a stretch

Some roles are described as entry level but require prior ownership, technical depth, or direct customer experience. You can still apply when your evidence transfers, but name the gap honestly and explain how you have learned adjacent work.