Because i sit within an AirBnb I rented to the month of August (having a failing AC from the Texas Summer) I thought it could be fun to do a mental check of start-up life as well as the transition thus far. Always good when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our team significantly the business enterprise aspects is starting to feel “normal.” If that’s possible. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out of your “storming” phase and after this into the “normalization” phase of our fresh. I now use her Westpoint terminology inside my common speech, confusing friends basic terms as Sitrep, bluf and naturally MFIC. I’ll let her enlighten everybody around the definitions. In my opinion, normalizing they is assisting us show we have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are common aligned as well as the pace is obtaining bigtime. All good things.
Over the posts I’ve commented on developing the site, CRE culture, investment and much more. In this posting I wish to concentrate on customers and how to pay attention to them.
Once we first launched beta and started 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 roadmap button for your?” (DOH!). To people 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 since many people are willing to give you their assist with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small business owners make smarter lease decisions.
Ahead of time, I felt compelled to push almost all our developing the site and assumptions from the pure property perspective. I knew we could improve on the existing tech in the industry, and we’re an advert property product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and many types of so good stuff but we provide a platform which is 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 as a team, we became much less reliant on these assumptions and much more and much more engaged from the feedback from your users and others from the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not only a property product, we’re an enterprise product. How did we discover 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 a critical and foundational purpose of ours to gather these experiences. However, I’m pleasantly surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small business owners after they hear our mission, try out the platform and know what we’re about. It’s not uncommon for your caboodlers to spend 30 mins on one review (that your collection part takes about 60 seconds FYI) because the small company community is definitely so hungry to be heard. This is a group who is putting their livelihoods exactly in danger, every day, to create 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 within the following few weeks (SUPER excited to demonstrate everybody) but merely all out interviewing, listening and gaining knowledge from our core customers. I’ve found out that even though your product is provided for free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products ought to solve down to earth damage to down to earth people. This full release I believe encompasses that mantra. We’ll share it soon.
Even as grow our team we all have a role to try out 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 best at exposing your identiity pressurized. All of us (and also the founders) do no matter what to maneuver the ball forward. People question how the transition from CRE to Startup in tech goes, if and when they dive right in too using idea? I smile and ask this: Can you handle the strain of the deadline, the following sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and far considerably more. When you decide to take the plunge and build something matters you in turn become much more responsible. How? Well ideas are just about worth nothing, or so I’ve learned 😉 It’s all from the execution as well as the team…as well as the culture. A strong culture could be the foundation to get a strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
For those who have an idea, it’s just yours, you’re only to blame for cultivating the ideas themselves. When you start an enterprise (from an idea) you’re to blame for the investors, (usually your mates 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 day…most of you’re to blame for yourself. There’s no automatic paycheck or salary to obtain to get up and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something have love for. I assume that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate just how much work it is to take up a business, never underestimate how difficult at times might be, the strain is off the charts as well as the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you have love for what you’re doing, if you believe inside your mission as well as your culture as well as your team? This is actually the best damn thing you’ll do your entire life.
No-one seriously knows where our path will lead. Startups within their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and they are just starting to test them in the live environment, time, our efforts as well as the market will dictate a percentage of our success. I recognize this, the west will dictate the way you lead and how we interact as people…which is something I’m satisfied with.
Struck me up on LinkedIn or [email protected]
I’d never knock people who don’t desire to start their own business, it’s definately not simple and easy , oftentimes personal considerations don’t take. If you undertake? Confer with your customers, listen and learn. They’re going to inform you what they want to find out and improve your thinking, in each and every facet of your product. There exists a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and now we have confidence in that. I am aware what we’re doing only at Tenavox is easily the most rewarding professional experience of my well being, and that’s worth every bit from the stress, risk and fervour we’re pouring in it every day. It’s funny, whenever we started out I wasn’t sure precisely how to border this points from the small company owner…Now? We understand them because we live them. Along with a wise someone once said, “there’s no replacement experience.”
We had an incredible team development last week in Austin too! Thanks to #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned for more for your full release within 2-3 weeks and appreciate your reading my ramblings of course.
You can comment below or have a run at a few of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.
Have something to say meantime? Struck me up on LinkedIn or [email protected]