Because i sit here in an AirBnb I rented for that month of August (having a failing AC in the Texas Summer) I believed it could be a great time to execute a mental check of start-up life and the transition up to now. Always good when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown all of us significantly the organization aspects is starting to feel “normal.” If that’s possible. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out of your “storming” phase now in the “normalization” phase of our newbie. Now i use her Westpoint terminology within my common speech, confusing friends basic terms as Sitrep, bluf and naturally MFIC. I’ll let her enlighten all of you about the definitions. In my experience, normalizing the team is helping us show we’ve got momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are typical aligned and the pace is picking up bigtime. Nothing but good things.
In previous posts I’ve commented on developing the site, CRE culture, investment plus much more. In this article I would like to focus on customers and the ways to pay attention to them.
If we first launched beta and started collecting feedback, the response was overwhelming from my initial users. “Change this,” “I don’t under this wording here,” “consider adding X,” “is there a map button for your?” (DOH!). To prospects with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s not new. I for one, having only a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed since everybody is prepared to give you their assistance with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small businesses make better lease decisions.
In early stages, I felt compelled to push almost all our developing the site and assumptions from the pure real estate perspective. I knew we might improve on the current tech on the market, and we’re an advert real estate product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and so good stuff but our company offers a platform which is CRE based to the users. Our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped in the real estate problem-solving mindset. Once we grew together together, we became less reliant on these assumptions plus much more plus much more engaged from the feedback from my users and other people in the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not just a real estate product, we’re a company product. How did we discover 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 platform with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s a critical and foundational purpose of ours to get these experiences. However, I’m surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small businesses when they hear our mission, try out the platform and determine what we’re about. It’s not uncommon for our caboodlers to pay 30 mins using one review (that your collection part takes about 60 seconds FYI) for the reason that small company community is simply so hungry to become heard. It is a group who’s putting their livelihoods at stake, each 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 just coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release here in the following month or so (SUPER excited to show everybody) but just all out interviewing, listening and gaining knowledge through our core customers. I’ve discovered that just because your product is free of charge doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products need to solve down to earth damage to down to earth people. This full release I believe encompasses that mantra. We will share it soon.
Once we grow all of us we all have a job to try out 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. Our company (and also the founders) do no matter what to advance the ball forward. People question how a transition from CRE to Startup in tech is certainly going, should they take the plunge too using idea? I smile and enquire of this: Can you handle the stress with this deadline, the following sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and much considerably more. When you elect to take the plunge and build a thing that matters you become a lot more responsible. How? Well ideas are basically worth nothing, approximately I’ve learned 😉 It’s all in the execution and the team…and the culture. A solid culture is the foundation for a strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
If you have an idea, it’s just yours, you’re only in charge of cultivating the thoughts themselves. Once you begin a company (from an idea) you’re in charge of the investors, (usually friends and family and families hard-earned money), you’re in charge of your people, their efforts as well as their goals, you’re in charge of your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward each day…but most coming from all you’re in charge of yourself. There isn’t any automatic paycheck or salary to get you up and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something have love for. I suppose that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate how much push the button is always to start up a business, never underestimate how difficult at times can be, the stress is from the charts and the stakes couldn’t be higher. But if you have love for what you’re doing, if you feel within your mission and your culture and your team? This is actually the best damn thing you’ll do the whole life.
Nobody 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 out . inside a live environment, time, our efforts and the market will dictate a portion of our success. I do know this, the west will dictate the way you lead and just how we interact as people…and that is something I’m satisfied with.
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I’d never knock those who don’t want to start their particular business, it’s far from simple and easy , oftentimes personal considerations don’t so it can gain. If you do? Speak with your customers, listen and learn. They are going to show you what they want to determine and boost your thinking, in most element of your product. There exists a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and that we have confidence in that. I realize what we’re doing here at Tenavox is easily the most rewarding professional experience of playing, and that’s worth every bit in the stress, risk and fervour we’re pouring in it each day. It’s funny, when we started off I wasn’t sure just how to border the anguish points in the small business operator…Now? Could them because we live them. Plus a wise someone once said, “there’s no replacement for experience.”
There were an incredible team building a week ago in Austin too! Due to #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Keep tuned in for our full release here in a month and many thanks for reading my ramblings keep in mind.
Go ahead and comment below or please take a run at a few of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.
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