# LinkedIn Boolean search for founders and CEOs

> A ready Boolean string for founders, co-founders and CEOs, assistants left out. Free, no signup. Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us.

**Boolean search for founders and CEOs. A ready string for Sales Navigator, no signup.** Use it at https://tools.joinvalley.co/linkedin-boolean-search-founders

Part of the [LinkedIn Boolean search builder](https://tools.joinvalley.co/linkedin-boolean-search).

## What's the Boolean string for founders and CEOs on LinkedIn? Every title it covers, and what it leaves out.

In Sales Navigator, paste this into the title filter: (Founder OR "Co-Founder" OR Cofounder OR CEO OR "Chief Executive Officer") NOT (assistant OR "office of the CEO" OR intern OR student). It covers 5 ways people write the title and leaves out assistant, office of the CEO, intern, student.

| Title | In or out | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Founder | In | The plain title. |
| Co-Founder | In | In quotes, so LinkedIn can't read the hyphen as a minus sign. |
| Cofounder | In | LinkedIn matches a quoted phrase exactly, so each wording needs its own entry. |
| CEO | In | The acronym most founders use. |
| Chief Executive Officer | In | The spelled-out form. |
| assistant | Out | Executive assistants to a CEO often carry the title in theirs. |
| office of the CEO | Out | Chief of staff teams that sit in the CEO's office. |
| intern | Out | Keeps out interns. |
| student | Out | Students who founded clubs or side projects. |

Our picks, not LinkedIn's. Add or remove titles in the builder above and the string updates.

Sources: [LinkedIn Help: Use Boolean search on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a524335) (read 2026-10-30), [LinkedIn Help: Using Boolean Search on Sales Navigator](https://www.linkedin.com/help/sales-navigator/answer/a168061) (read 2026-10-30)

## How it works

The builder opens on our founders and ceos list for Sales Navigator: 5 title variants and 4 titles to leave out. Edit any of them, switch product, or add keywords, and the string updates. Everything runs in your browser, and nothing you type is sent to us.

Quotes, parentheses and capital operators go in for you, following LinkedIn's Boolean rules, and the checker below the builder flags anything LinkedIn won't read the way you meant.

## Founders, co-founders and CEOs. One string for all three.

Founders write their title several ways, and so do the people around them.

### Why Co-Founder is in quotes

LinkedIn doesn't officially support + and - as operators. Quoting Co-Founder keeps the hyphen part of the word, so it can't be taken for a minus.

Sources: [LinkedIn Help: Use Boolean search on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a524335) (read 2026-10-30)

### Narrow it by company in Sales Navigator

Sales Navigator reads Boolean in its Company field as well as titles, so you can add company names or leave some out alongside this string.

Sources: [LinkedIn Help: Using Boolean Search on Sales Navigator](https://www.linkedin.com/help/sales-navigator/answer/a168061) (read 2026-10-30)

## Sources

- [LinkedIn Help: Use Boolean search on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a524335) (read 2026-10-30)
- [LinkedIn Help: Using Boolean Search on Sales Navigator](https://www.linkedin.com/help/sales-navigator/answer/a168061) (read 2026-10-30)
- [LinkedIn Help: Use Boolean to filter search results in Recruiter and Recruiter Lite](https://www.linkedin.com/help/recruiter/answer/a415295) (read 2026-10-30)
- [LinkedIn Help: Boolean Query Limitations](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a524411/boolean-query-limitations) (read 2026-10-30)

## Questions people ask

### What's the Boolean string for founders on LinkedIn?

(Founder OR "Co-Founder" OR Cofounder OR CEO OR "Chief Executive Officer") NOT (assistant OR "office of the CEO" OR intern OR student), in Sales Navigator's title filter.

### Why is Co-Founder in quotes in a LinkedIn Boolean search?

So the hyphen stays part of the word. LinkedIn doesn't officially support - as an operator, and quoting avoids any doubt.

### How do I leave executive assistants out of a CEO search?

Add NOT (assistant) to the title string, as this one does. Assistants often carry the CEO's title in theirs.

## Related tools

- [LinkedIn Boolean search builder](https://tools.joinvalley.co/linkedin-boolean-search): Builds Boolean strings for LinkedIn, Sales Navigator and Recruiter, and fixes broken ones.
- [LinkedIn Boolean search for sales leaders](https://tools.joinvalley.co/linkedin-boolean-search-sales-leaders): A ready Boolean string for VPs of Sales, Heads of Sales and CROs, for Sales Navigator.
- [Email permutator](https://tools.joinvalley.co/email-permutator): Lists every likely work email for a name and company, and checks the domain takes mail.
- [LinkedIn X-ray search builder](https://tools.joinvalley.co/linkedin-x-ray-search): Builds a Google search that finds LinkedIn profiles by job title, company and city.

## Next step

Want replies, not just clean copy? Valley finds buyers showing real buying signals and messages them across email and LinkedIn. [Valley](https://www.joinvalley.co/?utm_source=tools_suite)

Shelf: [01 Data and prospecting](https://tools.joinvalley.co/data-and-prospecting)

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Tools by Valley, made by [Valley](https://www.joinvalley.co/?utm_source=tools_suite). HTML version: https://tools.joinvalley.co/linkedin-boolean-search-founders