While i sit here in an AirBnb I rented for that month of August (which has a failing AC from the Texas Summer) I figured it may be fun to execute a mental check of start-up life and also the transition up to now. Advantageous when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown we significantly the organization aspects starts to feel “normal.” If that’s a possibility. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out of the “storming” phase and today in the “normalization” phase in our 1st year. Now i use her Westpoint terminology during my common speech, confusing friends with such terms as Sitrep, bluf as well as MFIC. I’ll allow her to enlighten all of you around the definitions. In my experience, normalizing the c’s helps us show we now have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are typical aligned and also the pace is buying bigtime. Nothing but good things.
In previous posts I’ve commented on developing the site, CRE culture, investment and more. On this page I would like to concentrate on customers and how to hear them.
Once we first launched beta and began 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 guide button to the?” (DOH!). To the people with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s nothing new. I for just one, having just a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed by how most people are willing to offer you their assistance with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small businesses make smarter lease decisions.
Early on, I felt compelled to push almost all our developing the site and assumptions from your pure real-estate perspective. I knew we’re able to improve on the current tech on the market, and we’re an advert real-estate product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and many types of that great stuff but we offer a platform that’s CRE based to the users. The whole core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped from the real-estate problem-solving mindset. Once we grew together together, we became less and less dependent on these assumptions and more and more engaged by the feedback from your users and people from the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not simply a real-estate product, we’re a small business product. How did look for 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 goal of ours to recover these experiences. However, I’m impressed by the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small businesses once they hear our mission, try out the platform and determine what we’re all about. It’s quite normal for caboodlers to shell out 30 mins on one review (that your collection part takes about One minute FYI) since the business community is definitely so hungry being heard. This is the group that’s putting their livelihoods on the line, every single day, to produce their business grow as well as 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 just coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release here in the next couple weeks (SUPER excited to exhibit everybody) but all out interviewing, listening and learning from our core customers. I’ve learned that even though your product or service is free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products have to solve real life difficulties for real life people. This full release I do believe encompasses that mantra. We will share it soon.
Once we grow we all of us have a role to try out 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 whom you are pressurized. Our team (and especially the founders) do anything to advance the ball forward. People question how the transition from CRE to Startup in tech will go, should they take the plunge too using their idea? I smile and have this: Can you handle the worries on this deadline, the next sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and far much more. When you elect to go for it and build a thing that matters you become far more responsible. How? Well ideas are virtually worth nothing, roughly I’ve learned 😉 It’s all from the execution and also the team…and also the culture. A strong culture is the foundation for the strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
When you’ve got a concept, it’s just yours, you’re only responsible for cultivating the thoughts themselves. Once you begin a small business (from a concept) you’re responsible for the investors, (usually your mates and families hard-earned money), you’re responsible for your people, their efforts as well as their goals, you’re responsible for your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward every single day…but a majority of of you’re responsible for yourself. There is no automatic paycheck or salary to get you up out of bed and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something you have love for. I guess that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate just how much push the button is usually to take up a business, never underestimate how difficult some days might be, the worries is from the charts and also the stakes couldn’t be higher. But if you have love for what you’re doing, if you believe 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 will lead. Startups inside their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and are just beginning to test them out . inside a live environment, time, our efforts and also the market will dictate some in our success. I understand this, our culture will dictate the way we lead and exactly how we come together as people…and that is something I’m pleased with.
Hit me high on LinkedIn or [email protected]
I would never knock those that don’t need to start their own business, it’s definately not easy and oftentimes personal considerations don’t so it can have. Should you choose? Speak to your customers, listen and learn. They’ll let you know what they want to view and enhance your thinking, in most facet of your product or service. You will find there’s new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and we have confidence in that. I understand what we’re doing at Tenavox is easily the most rewarding professional connection with playing, and that’s worth equally from the stress, risk and fervour we’re pouring with it every single day. It’s funny, if we commenced I wasn’t sure exactly how to frame this points from the small company owner…Now? Problems in later life them because we live them. Plus a wise someone once said, “there’s no replacement for experience.”
There was a great team building events last weekend in Austin too! Because of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned for more for full release here in a month and thank you for reading my ramblings keep in mind.
Feel free to comment below or take a run at some of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.
Have something to state meantime? Hit me high on LinkedIn or [email protected]