While i sit in an AirBnb I rented to the month of August (which has a failing AC inside the Texas Summer) I thought it will be a good time to execute a mental check of start-up life as well as the transition so far. Always beneficial when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our team significantly the organization aspects is beginning to feel “normal.” If that’s plausible. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re from the “storming” phase and after this into the “normalization” phase of our own newbie. Now i use her Westpoint terminology during my common speech, confusing friends basic terms as Sitrep, bluf not to mention MFIC. I’ll let her enlighten all of you for the definitions. If you ask me, normalizing the team is helping us show we’ve momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are common aligned as well as the pace is collecting bigtime. Great things.
In previous posts I’ve commented on product, CRE culture, investment plus much more. In this article I would like to give attention to customers and the way to hear them.
Once we first launched beta and started 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 prospects with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s not new. I first, having just a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed due to the fact so many people are willing to provide you with their benefit this mission. What’s the mission again? Help smaller businesses make better lease decisions.
In early stages, I felt compelled to push most our product and assumptions from a pure real-estate perspective. I knew we’re able to strengthen the existing tech in the industry, and we’re an industrial real-estate product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and many types of a good stuff but our company offers a platform that is certainly CRE based to users. All of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped inside the real-estate problem-solving mindset. Even as grew together as a team, we became less and less dependent on these assumptions plus much more plus much more engaged by the feedback from the users and people inside the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not really a real-estate product, we’re a company product. How did look for that out?
We asked.
Our caboodling team has gone 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 surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, smaller businesses after they hear our mission, try out the platform and understand what we’re information on. It’s normal for the caboodlers to pay a half-hour on a single review (that your collection part takes about 60 seconds FYI) as the business community is definitely so hungry to be heard. This is the group that’s putting their livelihoods at stake, every single day, to produce their business grow along with 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 merely coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release in the next month or so (SUPER excited to demonstrate everybody) but plain interviewing, listening and learning from our core customers. I’ve learned that even though your products or services costs nothing doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products ought to solve down to earth trouble for down to earth people. This full release I do think encompasses that mantra. We will share it soon.
Even as grow our team you have a part to learn 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 better at exposing your identiity under pressure. All of us (and especially the founders) do whatever needs doing to maneuver the ball forward. People inquire about how the transition from CRE to Startup in tech is going, if and when they make the leap too making use of their idea? I smile and get this: Is it possible to handle the load of this deadline, the next sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and much a lot more. When you choose to go for it and build a thing that matters you feel far more responsible. How? Well ideas are just about worth nothing, or so I’ve learned 😉 It’s all inside the execution as well as the team…as well as the culture. A robust culture is the foundation for the strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
For those who have a thought, it’s just yours, you’re only to blame for cultivating the thoughts themselves. When you begin a company (from a thought) you’re to blame for the investors, (usually friends and family 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 most of all you’re to blame for yourself. There’s no automatic paycheck or salary to help you 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 the amount work it would be to take up a business, never underestimate how difficult at times might be, the load 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 think maybe within your mission plus your culture plus your team? Here is the best damn thing you’ll do the whole life.
No person seriously knows where our path may lead. Startups within their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and therefore are beginning to test them inside a live environment, time, our efforts as well as the market will dictate some of our own success. I know this, the west will dictate the way we lead and exactly how we communicate as people…that is certainly something I’m satisfied with.
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I would never knock people that don’t wish to start their unique business, it’s far from simple and easy , oftentimes personal considerations don’t allow it. Should you choose? Confer with your customers, listen and learn. They’ll tell you what they need to find out and boost your thinking, in each and every element of your products or services. There exists a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and we have confidence in that. I realize what we’re doing at Tenavox is regarded as the rewarding professional experience with my entire life, and that’s worth every bit of the stress, risk and keenness we’re pouring with it every single day. It’s funny, when we began I wasn’t sure exactly how to frame the pain sensation points of the small business owner…Now? We know them because we live them. As well as a wise someone once said, “there’s no replacement for experience.”
There were a great team building a week ago in Austin too! As a result of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Keep tuned in for the full release in a couple weeks and thanks for reading my ramblings remember.
Twenty-four hours a day comment below or take a run at many of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.
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