As I sit in an AirBnb I rented to the month of August (using a failing AC within the Texas Summer) I thought it might be fun to do a mental check of start-up life as well as the transition up to now. Advantageous when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our company 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 to the “normalization” phase individuals first year. I now use her Westpoint terminology within my common speech, confusing friends basic terms as Sitrep, bluf and naturally MFIC. I’ll allow her to enlighten all of you on the definitions. In my opinion, normalizing the team is helping us show we’ve got momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are common aligned as well as the pace is obtaining bigtime. Perfect things.
In the past posts I’ve commented on product development, CRE culture, investment plus more. In this article I wish to give attention to customers and the way to tune in 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 guide button to the?” (DOH!). To those with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s nothing new. I for starters, having only a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed by how most people are prepared to offer you their assistance with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small enterprises make smarter lease decisions.
Ahead of time, I felt compelled to push almost all our product development and assumptions from the pure real-estate perspective. I knew we might strengthen the current 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 provide a platform that is CRE based to the users. Our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped within the real-estate problem-solving mindset. Even as grew together together, we became much less dependent on these assumptions plus more plus more engaged by the feedback from the users and people within the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not really a real-estate product, we’re a company product. How did find that out?
We asked.
Our caboodling team is going 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 a critical and foundational objective of ours to gather these experiences. However, I’m surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small enterprises whenever they hear our mission, check out the working platform and determine what we’re exactly about. It’s quite normal for your caboodlers to invest a half-hour on one review (that your collection part takes about One minute FYI) for the reason that business community is just so hungry to get heard. This can be a group who’s putting their livelihoods at risk, each day, to create their business grow as well as 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 just coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release in the following couple weeks (SUPER excited to show everybody) but simply plain interviewing, listening and studying under our core customers. I’ve found out that even though your products is provided for free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products need to solve real-world difficulties for real-world people. This full release I do believe encompasses that mantra. We are going to share it soon.
Even as grow our company you have a part to play here 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 your identiity pressurized. All of us (and also the founders) do whatever it takes to move the ball forward. People ask about how the transition from CRE to Startup in tech is certainly going, if and when they dive right in too with their idea? I smile and ask this: Are you able to handle the stress of the deadline, the following sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and far a lot more. When you elect go for it . and build something matters you then become a great deal more responsible. How? Well ideas are virtually worth nothing, roughly I’ve learned 😉 It’s all within the execution as well as the team…as well as the culture. A strong culture could be the foundation for the strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
When you’ve got a perception, it’s just yours, you’re only accountable for cultivating the thoughts themselves. Once you begin a company (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 as well as their goals, you’re accountable for your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward each day…but most coming from all you’re accountable for yourself. There is no automatic paycheck or salary to get you off the bed and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something have love for. I guess that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate simply how much push the button would be to begin a business, never underestimate how difficult some days could be, the stress is off the charts as well as the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you simply have love for what you’re doing, if you feel in your mission and your culture and your team? This is the best damn thing you’ll do the whole life.
No-one seriously knows where our path may lead. Startups inside their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and therefore are just beginning to test them out in a live environment, time, our efforts as well as the market will dictate a portion individuals success. I recognize this, the west will dictate the way you lead and just how we come together as people…that is certainly something I’m happy with.
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I’d never knock those that don’t want to start their own business, it’s faraway from easy and oftentimes personal considerations don’t so it can gain. Should you choose? Speak with your customers, listen and learn. They’ll tell you what they need to determine and boost your thinking, in each and every facet of your products. There exists a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and that we rely on that. I understand what we’re doing here at Tenavox is regarded as the rewarding professional experience of my well being, and that’s worth just with the stress, risk and passion we’re pouring involved with it each day. It’s funny, whenever we started off I wasn’t sure the best way to frame this points with the private business owner…Now? Could them because we live them. Along with a wise someone once said, “there’s no alternative to experience.”
There were an incredible team building last weekend in Austin too! As a result of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned in for your full release in a couple weeks and many thanks for reading my ramblings of course.
You can 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 up on LinkedIn or [email protected]