As I sit in an AirBnb I rented to the month of August (with a failing AC within the Texas Summer) I thought it might be fun to do a mental check of start-up life and the transition up to now. Advantageous when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our team significantly the organization aspects is beginning to feel “normal.” If that’s a chance. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out from the “storming” phase and now in the “normalization” phase individuals fresh. I now use her Westpoint terminology inside my common speech, confusing friends with such terms as Sitrep, bluf and naturally MFIC. I’ll permit her to enlighten everyone about the definitions. In my opinion, normalizing they is helping us show we’ve momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are all aligned and the pace is obtaining bigtime. Great things.
In the past posts I’ve commented on website, CRE culture, investment plus more. In this posting I would like to focus on customers and ways to tune in to them.
When 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 guide button to the?” (DOH!). To prospects with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s nothing new. I for just one, having just a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed since many people are ready to give you their help with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small enterprises make better lease decisions.
In the beginning, I felt compelled to push most our website and assumptions from your pure real estate property perspective. I knew we might make improvements to the existing tech in the marketplace, and we’re an industrial real estate property product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and many types of so good stuff but we provide a platform that’s CRE based to our users. All of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped within the real estate property problem-solving mindset. Even as grew together as a team, we became less dependent upon these assumptions plus more plus more engaged by the feedback from your users and other people within the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not simply a real estate property product, we’re a business 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 system with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s a critical and foundational goal of ours to collect these experiences. However, I’m pleasantly surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small enterprises when they hear our mission, test out system and know what we’re exactly about. It’s not uncommon for the caboodlers to pay a half-hour on one review (that your collection part takes about A minute FYI) for the reason that small business community is just so hungry to become heard. This is a group that’s putting their livelihoods on the line, each day, to create their business grow and 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 only coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release in the following couple of weeks (SUPER excited to indicate everybody) but simply plain interviewing, listening and gaining knowledge through our core customers. I’ve found out that simply because your products or services is free of charge doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products must solve real-world problems for real-world people. This full release I think encompasses that mantra. We’re going to share it soon.
Even as grow our team you have a part to play at Tenavox. Mine is heavily steeped in product, real estate property and methodology. That doesn’t mean we don’t wear fifty other hats too, from fundraising (which never stops haha) to data science, startups might be best at exposing what you are under time limits. Our company (especially the founders) do whatever it takes to go the ball forward. People ask about what sort of transition from CRE to Startup in tech will go, as long as they dive right in too making use of their idea? I smile and enquire of this: Can you handle the strain on this deadline, the following sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and far much more. When you choose to go for it and make something that matters you then become much more responsible. How? Well ideas are virtually worth nothing, approximately I’ve learned 😉 It’s all within the execution and the team…and the culture. A powerful culture could be the foundation for the strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
When you have a perception, it’s just yours, you’re only accountable for cultivating the minds themselves. When you begin a business (from a perception) you’re accountable for the investors, (usually friends and family and families hard-earned money), you’re accountable for your people, their efforts and their goals, you’re accountable for your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward each day…most coming from all you’re accountable for yourself. There is no automatic paycheck or salary to help you get up and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something you have love for. I assume that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate just how much arrange it is to take up a business, never underestimate how difficult some days may be, the strain is off the charts and the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you have love for what you’re doing, if you think with your mission and your culture and your team? This is actually the best damn thing you’ll do all of your life.
No person seriously knows where our path will lead. Startups in their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and so are beginning to test them in a live environment, time, our efforts and the market will dictate a percentage individuals success. I understand this, the west will dictate how you lead and the way we interact as people…which is something I’m proud of.
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I’d never knock those that don’t wish to start their unique business, it’s not even close to basic and oftentimes personal considerations don’t allow it. Should you choose? Speak with your customers, listen and discover. They’re going to inform you what they really want to view and enhance your thinking, in every single part of your products or services. You will find a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and now we have confidence in that. I know what we’re doing at Tenavox is among the most rewarding professional example of my well being, and that’s worth equally from the stress, risk and passion we’re pouring with it each day. It’s funny, when we commenced I wasn’t sure just how to frame the pain sensation points from the small business owner…Now? We understand them because we live them. Plus a wise someone once said, “there’s no alternative to experience.”
We’d an incredible team building events last weekend in Austin too! As a result of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned in for the full release in a couple weeks and many thanks for reading my ramblings as always.
Feel free to comment below or require a run at many of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.
Have something to express meantime? Hit me through to LinkedIn or [email protected]