Without knowing the deatils, it is mostly #4, with a good doze of #3, and potentially a decent amount of #1.
Basically, yeah, small/not-yet-massive startups have insane overinflation in titles. Had plenty of former college classmates who became "VPs" or "staff engineers" at super small startups a couple years out of college. Getting plenty of recruiter messages on linkedin myself for "staff engineer" positions at random startups, despite me not even being a senior at a FAANG yet, and only being about 4.5 years out of college.
Another thing is, no matter how smart or hard working you are, being in the right place at the right time is extremely important. It won't help much if you lack skills, but being in the right place at the right time is like a force multiplier on your skills and the work you do. Which is partially why most of the big opportunities are still heavily concentrated in a few geographic spots (despite there being no tangible technical need for that).
Don't beat yourself up over it, titles don't mean that much. You are able to start a one-man-shop LLC and call yourself a VP, a director, or whatever else you want. The real question is, with that title, are they being compensated as much as you are? If they decide to quit and get a job at a "regular" tech company after, will that VP title translate into anything more than an L4/L5? Just some food for thought.
Basically, yeah, small/not-yet-massive startups have insane overinflation in titles. Had plenty of former college classmates who became "VPs" or "staff engineers" at super small startups a couple years out of college. Getting plenty of recruiter messages on linkedin myself for "staff engineer" positions at random startups, despite me not even being a senior at a FAANG yet, and only being about 4.5 years out of college.
Another thing is, no matter how smart or hard working you are, being in the right place at the right time is extremely important. It won't help much if you lack skills, but being in the right place at the right time is like a force multiplier on your skills and the work you do. Which is partially why most of the big opportunities are still heavily concentrated in a few geographic spots (despite there being no tangible technical need for that).
Don't beat yourself up over it, titles don't mean that much. You are able to start a one-man-shop LLC and call yourself a VP, a director, or whatever else you want. The real question is, with that title, are they being compensated as much as you are? If they decide to quit and get a job at a "regular" tech company after, will that VP title translate into anything more than an L4/L5? Just some food for thought.