First, I think the advice of your CTO is not sound. If you don’t want to take the heat, you probably shouldn’t have an equity stake and definitely should not be on the board. I would skip VP and ask for CDO. Also tittles frequently have salary and bonus bands as a company gets bigger.
Second, I believe that typically equity is distributed in shares. Share can dilute with investment. Get a lawyer and understand what you are asking for and getting.
Third, slaty is what you can negotiate. To properly negotiate you need information and leverage. If you want to substantially increase your salary you will usually need an offer from another company that shows what your market value is. Otherwise you already work there for your current pay and have no motivation to pay you anything more. Don’t let title become part of the salary negation. I’d rather be called staff designer and get my current pay than be called CDO and not truly get paid at that level.
Lastly, if you want to be taken as a leader in a business endeavor, your writing will matter. I hope you write more formerly than the above example in your daily work communications. At least capitalize the first letter of the first word in your sentences and attempt to use proper punctuation. We need to represent the professional practice of design at a high level to be taken seriously. That will contribute to your experience being transferable to your next position.