As I sit here in an AirBnb I rented for the month of August (using a failing AC from the Texas Summer) I believed it could be a good time to execute a mental check of start-up life as well as the transition so far. Always advantageous when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown we significantly the organization aspect is starting to feel “normal.” If that’s plausible. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out of the “storming” phase and today in the “normalization” phase of our 1st year. I now use her Westpoint terminology during my common speech, confusing friends with such terms as Sitrep, bluf not to mention MFIC. I’ll allow her to enlighten everyone on the definitions. In my experience, normalizing they is helping us show we’ve momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are aligned as well as the pace is buying bigtime. Great things.
In past posts I’ve commented on developing the site, CRE culture, investment plus much more. In this post I wish to focus on customers and ways to tune in to them.
When we first launched beta and commenced collecting feedback, the response was overwhelming from our initial users. “Change this,” “I don’t under this wording here,” “consider adding X,” “is there a atlas button for that?” (DOH!). To the people with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s nothing new. I for one, having just a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed by how everybody is ready to provide you with their assist with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help smaller businesses make better lease decisions.
Ahead of time, I felt compelled to push nearly all our developing the site and assumptions from a pure real estate perspective. I knew we could enhance the existing tech in the industry, and we’re an advert real estate product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and all sorts of so good stuff but we offer a platform that’s CRE based to users. The whole core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped from the real estate problem-solving mindset. Even as grew together together, we became less reliant on these assumptions plus much more plus much more engaged from the feedback from our users and people from the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not simply a real estate product, we’re a business product. How did look for 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 platform with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s an important and foundational objective of ours to gather these experiences. However, I’m impressed by the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, smaller businesses once they hear our mission, test out the platform and know very well what we’re information on. It’s not uncommon for the caboodlers to shell out half an hour one review (that your collection part takes about One minute FYI) because the small enterprise community is merely so hungry to become heard. This is the group that’s putting their livelihoods at stake, every day, to make their business grow along with their personal lives more enriched through their dreams. It’s about damn time someone sat down and heard them.
So that’s what we’ve been doing. Not only coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release here in another month or so (SUPER excited to show everybody) but plain interviewing, listening and learning from our core customers. I’ve learned that because your product or service is provided for free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products have to solve real world problems for real world people. This full release I do think encompasses that mantra. We’ll share it soon.
Even as grow we 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 are best at exposing your identiity being forced. We (and also the founders) do whatever needs doing to maneuver the ball forward. People ask about the way the transition from CRE to Startup in tech is going, whenever they take the plunge too using idea? I smile and have this: Can you handle the worries on this deadline, another sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and far more. When you choose to take the plunge and produce something matters you become far more responsible. How? Well ideas are just about worth nothing, roughly I’ve learned 😉 It’s all from the execution as well as the team…as well as the culture. A strong culture is the foundation for any strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
For those who have a perception, it’s just yours, you’re only accountable for cultivating the ideas themselves. Once you begin a business (from a perception) you’re accountable for the investors, (usually your mates and families hard-earned money), you’re accountable for your people, their efforts along with their goals, you’re accountable for your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward every day…most of most you’re accountable for yourself. There isn’t any automatic paycheck or salary to acquire off the bed and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something you have adoration for. I suppose that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate just how much push the button would be to begin a business, never underestimate how difficult some days could be, the worries is from the charts as well as the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you have adoration for what you’re doing, if you feel inside your mission and your culture and your team? This is actually the best damn thing you’ll do your entire 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 just starting to test them in a live environment, time, our efforts as well as the market will dictate some of our success. I know this, the west will dictate the way we lead and how we come together as people…which is something I’m happy with.
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I would never knock those that don’t need to start their very own business, it’s not even close to easy and oftentimes personal considerations don’t allow it. Should you? Speak with your customers, listen and learn. They will tell you what they need to see and boost your thinking, in every part of your product or service. There exists a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and now we believe in that. I know what we’re doing at Tenavox is regarded as the rewarding professional example of playing, and that’s worth equally of the stress, risk and passion we’re pouring in it every day. It’s funny, once we started out I wasn’t sure exactly how to border the pain sensation points of the private business owner…Now? We understand them because we live them. As well as a wise someone once said, “there’s no replacement experience.”
There were an incredible team development last weekend in Austin too! Because of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned for the full release here in 2-3 weeks and thanks for reading my ramblings remember.
Twenty-four hours a day comment below or please take a run at a number 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]
