When i sit in an AirBnb I rented to the month of August (which has a failing AC within the Texas Summer) I figured it will be a fun time to do a mental check of start-up life and also the transition to date. Advantageous when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our company significantly the business side of things starts to feel “normal.” If that’s a possibility. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re from the “storming” phase and after this into the “normalization” phase in our 1st year. 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 you all for the definitions. To me, normalizing the c’s is helping us show we have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are aligned and also the pace is collecting bigtime. Perfect things.
Over the posts I’ve commented on website, CRE culture, investment plus much more. In this post I wish to focus on customers and how to hear them.
Whenever 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 guide button for that?” (DOH!). To the people with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s nothing new. I for just one, having only a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed because when most people are happy to offer you their benefit this mission. What’s the mission again? Help smaller businesses make better lease decisions.
Ahead of time, I felt compelled to push nearly all our website and assumptions from a pure real estate property perspective. I knew we’re able to strengthen the present tech in the market, and we’re an industrial real estate property product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and all sorts of so good stuff but you can expect a platform that is CRE based to our users. All of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped within the real estate property problem-solving mindset. Once we grew together together, we became less dependent on these assumptions plus much more plus much more engaged with the feedback from the users and other people within the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not only a real estate property product, we’re a small business 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 system with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s a vital and foundational purpose of ours to get these experiences. However, I’m pleasantly surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, smaller businesses whenever they hear our mission, try system and know very well what we’re information on. It’s not unusual for the caboodlers to spend half an hour on one review (that the collection part takes about One minute FYI) since the small business community is merely so hungry to be heard. It is a group who’s putting their livelihoods at stake, every single 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 heard them.
So that’s what we’ve been doing. Not merely coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release in the following couple of weeks (SUPER excited to exhibit everybody) but just plain interviewing, listening and gaining knowledge from our core customers. I’ve discovered that simply because your products costs nothing 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 believe encompasses that mantra. We’ll share it soon.
Once we grow our company all of us have a part to experience at Tenavox. Mine is heavily steeped in product, real estate 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 might be best at exposing whom you are under pressure. Our team (and particularly the founders) do whatever it takes to go the ball forward. People enquire about how a transition from CRE to Startup in tech is certainly going, as long as they take the plunge too making use of their idea? I smile and ask this: Can you handle the load of this deadline, the following sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and much more. When you will decide go for it . and create something that matters you become a lot more responsible. How? Well ideas are just about worth nothing, or so I’ve learned 😉 It’s all within the execution and also the team…and also the culture. A powerful culture may be the foundation for the strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
For those who have a thought, it’s just yours, you’re only responsible for cultivating the minds themselves. When you start a small business (from a thought) 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 most of you’re responsible for yourself. There is no automatic paycheck or salary to get you up and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something have love for. I reckon that that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate the amount arrange it is usually to take up a business, never underestimate how difficult some days could be, the load is off the charts and also the stakes couldn’t be higher. Though if you have love for what you’re doing, if you feel within your mission along with your culture along with 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 are just starting to test them in the live environment, time, our efforts and also the market will dictate part in our success. I do know this, our culture will dictate the way you lead and how we come together as people…that is certainly something I’m satisfied with.
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I might never knock people who don’t wish to start their own business, it’s faraway from simple and easy , oftentimes personal considerations don’t allow it. If you do? Speak with your customers, listen and learn. They’re going to inform you what they need to view and increase your thinking, in every area of your products. You will find there’s new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and we trust that. I am aware what we’re doing at Tenavox is easily the most rewarding professional example of playing, and that’s worth just of the stress, risk and fervour we’re pouring with it every single day. It’s funny, whenever we began I wasn’t sure exactly how to border this points of the small business operator…Now? Problems in later life them because we live them. Plus a wise someone once said, “there’s no alternative to experience.”
We’d a fantastic team development last week in Austin too! Thanks to #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned for more for the full release in two to three weeks and 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.
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