Because i sit in an AirBnb I rented to the month of August (which has a failing AC in the Texas Summer) I figured it could be a great time to do a mental check of start-up life as well as the transition thus far. Always good when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our team significantly the business enterprise side starts to feel “normal.” If that’s a chance. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out of the “storming” phase now in to the “normalization” phase individuals fresh. Now i use her Westpoint terminology in my common speech, confusing friends by using these terms as Sitrep, bluf as well as MFIC. I’ll permit her to enlighten you all about the definitions. In my experience, normalizing the c’s helps us show we’ve got momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are all aligned as well as the pace is picking up bigtime. Perfect things.
Over the posts I’ve commented on product, CRE culture, investment and more. On this page I would like to focus on customers and how to hear them.
If we first launched beta and began collecting feedback, the response was overwhelming from your initial users. “Change this,” “I don’t under this wording here,” “consider adding X,” “is there a map button for your?” (DOH!). To people with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s nothing new. I first, having only a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed by how most people are happy to present you with their assist with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small enterprises make smarter lease decisions.
In early stages, I felt compelled to push nearly all our product and assumptions coming from a pure real estate perspective. I knew we might enhance the current tech in the marketplace, and we’re a commercial real estate product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and all sorts of a good stuff but you can expect a platform which is CRE based to your users. All of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped in the real estate problem-solving mindset. Even as we grew together together, we became much less dependent upon these assumptions and more and more engaged by the feedback from your users and people in the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not simply a real estate product, we’re a company product. How did we find that out?
We asked.
Our caboodling team is out daily hand-collecting reviews in Houston and I’m humbled by their efforts. They’re helping us seed the working platform with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s an important and foundational purpose of ours to collect these experiences. However, I’m impressed by the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small enterprises after they hear our mission, try out the working platform and know what we’re about. It’s not uncommon for caboodlers to spend thirty minutes on one review (that your collection part takes about One minute FYI) as the small business community is definitely so hungry being heard. It is a group who’s putting their livelihoods on the line, every day, to make their business grow as well as their personal lives more enriched through their dreams. It’s about damn time someone sat down and listened to them.
So that’s what we’ve been doing. Not merely coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release in the following few weeks (SUPER excited to demonstrate everybody) but merely all out interviewing, listening and studying under our core customers. I’ve learned that simply because your products or services is free of charge doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products need to solve down to earth problems for down to earth people. This full release I do think encompasses that mantra. We will share it soon.
Even as we grow our team all of us have a job to try out at Tenavox. Mine is heavily steeped in product, real estate and methodology. That doesn’t mean we don’t wear fifty other hats too, from fundraising (which never stops haha) to data science, startups would be best at exposing who you are pressurized. All of us (especially the founders) do whatever needs doing to maneuver the ball forward. People inquire about how the transition from CRE to Startup in tech is certainly going, if and when they take the plunge too with their idea? I smile and get this: Could you handle the strain of this deadline, the following sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and a lot much more. When you choose to take the plunge and build something that matters you in turn become far more responsible. How? Well ideas are just about worth nothing, or so I’ve learned 😉 It’s all in the execution as well as the team…as well as the culture. A powerful culture could be the foundation for a strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
When you’ve got a thought, it’s just yours, you’re only accountable for cultivating the minds themselves. Once you start a company (from a thought) you’re accountable for the investors, (usually your pals and families hard-earned money), you’re accountable for your people, their efforts as well as their goals, you’re accountable for your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward every day…but most of most you’re accountable for yourself. There is absolutely no automatic paycheck or salary to get you off the bed and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something you have love for. I assume that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate the amount arrange it is to begin a business, never underestimate how difficult some days could be, the strain is over charts as well as the stakes couldn’t be higher. But if you have love for what you’re doing, if you believe inside your mission as well as your culture as well as your team? This is actually the best damn thing you’ll do the whole life.
Nobody seriously knows where our path may lead. Startups of their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and are just starting to test them out within a live environment, time, our efforts as well as the market will dictate a portion individuals success. I know this, the west will dictate how we lead and the way we come together as people…and that’s something I’m pleased with.
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I would never knock those that don’t need to start their particular business, it’s definately not basic and oftentimes personal considerations don’t allow it. Should you? Talk to your customers, listen and discover. They are going to tell you what they desire to determine and enhance your thinking, in most area of your products or services. We have a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and we have confidence in that. I realize what we’re doing at Tenavox is among the most rewarding professional connection with my well being, and that’s worth equally of the stress, risk and keenness we’re pouring involved with it every day. It’s funny, when we began I wasn’t sure just how to frame the pain sensation points of the small business operator…Now? We understand them because we live them. Along with a wise someone once said, “there’s no replacement for experience.”
There was an excellent team development last week in Austin too! As a result of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Keep tuned in for full release in 2-3 weeks and appreciate your reading my ramblings of course.
Go ahead and comment below or take a run at some of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.
Have something to express meantime? Struck me up on LinkedIn or [email protected]