As I sit throughout an AirBnb I rented for your month of August (using a failing AC from the Texas Summer) I was thinking it may be a great time to do a mental check of start-up life and the transition so far. Always beneficial when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our team significantly the company aspects is starting to feel “normal.” If that’s plausible. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out of the “storming” phase and now to the “normalization” phase of our first year. Now i use her Westpoint terminology during my common speech, confusing friends with your terms as Sitrep, bluf as well as MFIC. I’ll permit her to enlighten all of you on the definitions. To me, normalizing the group is helping us show we have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are all aligned and the pace is collecting bigtime. All good things.
In previous posts I’ve commented on product, CRE culture, investment plus much more. In this article I wish to give attention to customers and how to pay attention to them.
Once we first launched beta and commenced collecting feedback, the response was overwhelming from the initial users. “Change this,” “I don’t under this wording here,” “consider adding X,” “is there a atlas button to the?” (DOH!). To people with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s not new. I for just one, having just a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed because when most people are prepared to present you with their help with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small businesses make smarter lease decisions.
Early on, I felt compelled to push most our product and assumptions from the pure property perspective. I knew we could improve on the existing tech in the marketplace, and we’re an advertisement property product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and that great stuff but our company offers a platform that’s CRE based to our users. The whole core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped from the property problem-solving mindset. Even as grew together together, we became less and less just a few these assumptions plus much more plus much more engaged from the feedback from the users and others from the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not really a property product, we’re a company product. How did 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 an important and foundational purpose of ours to recover these experiences. However, I’m pleasantly surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small businesses after they hear our mission, try system and understand what we’re information on. It’s not uncommon for caboodlers to spend a half-hour on a single review (that the collection part takes about One minute FYI) since the small business community is definitely so hungry being heard. This is the group who is putting their livelihoods on the line, every single 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 followed them.
So that’s what we’ve been doing. Not merely coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release throughout the following few weeks (SUPER excited to demonstrate everybody) but just plain interviewing, listening and learning from our core customers. I’ve found that simply because your product costs nothing doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products must solve real world damage to real world people. This full release I do think encompasses that mantra. We’ll share it soon.
Even as grow our team we all have a role to experience only at Tenavox. Mine is heavily steeped in product, 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 would be better at exposing who you are being forced. We (and particularly the founders) do whatever needs doing to move the ball forward. People ask about how a transition from CRE to Startup in tech is certainly going, as long as they dive right in too with their idea? I smile and have this: Are you able to handle the worries on this deadline, the following sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and a lot considerably more. When you will decide go for it . and build something matters you then become a great deal more responsible. How? Well ideas are virtually worth nothing, possibly even I’ve learned 😉 It’s all from the execution and the team…and the culture. A robust culture is the foundation for the strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
When you have a concept, it’s just yours, you’re only to blame for cultivating the thoughts themselves. When you start a company (from a concept) you’re to blame for the investors, (usually your pals and families hard-earned money), you’re to blame for your people, their efforts along with their goals, you’re to blame for your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward every single day…but a majority of of most you’re to blame for yourself. There is no automatic paycheck or salary to obtain off the bed and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something have adoration for. I reckon that that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate simply how much push the button is always to take up a business, never underestimate how difficult some days can be, the worries is from the charts and the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you have adoration for what you’re doing, if you think maybe within your mission plus your culture plus your team? This can be the best damn thing you’ll do your whole life.
No one seriously knows where our path may lead. Startups of their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and so are beginning to test them within a live environment, time, our efforts and the market will dictate a percentage of our success. I do know this, our culture will dictate how you lead and the way we work together as people…that is certainly something I’m happy with.
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I’d never knock those who don’t want to start their unique business, it’s faraway from easy and oftentimes personal considerations don’t take. If you undertake? Speak to your customers, listen and discover. They will tell you what they need to determine and improve your thinking, in each and every area of your product. We have a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and we believe in that. I am aware what we’re doing only at Tenavox is regarded as the rewarding professional experience of my entire life, and that’s worth equally with the stress, risk and passion we’re pouring in it every single day. It’s funny, whenever we started out I wasn’t sure exactly how to frame the pain sensation points with the private business owner…Now? We know them because we live them. As well as a wise someone once said, “there’s no substitute for experience.”
There were a great team development last weekend in Austin too! Because of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned in for full release throughout a couple weeks and thanks for reading my ramblings keep in mind.
Go ahead and comment below or take 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 high on LinkedIn or [email protected]
