When i sit within an AirBnb I rented for the month of August (with a failing AC within the Texas Summer) I thought it could be a fun time to do a mental check of start-up life and the transition so far. Always beneficial when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our company significantly the business enterprise side is starting to feel “normal.” If that’s plausible. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re from the “storming” phase and today into the “normalization” phase in our first year. Now i use her Westpoint terminology within my common speech, confusing friends with your terms as Sitrep, bluf and of course MFIC. I’ll allow her to enlighten you all about the definitions. In my experience, normalizing the team is assisting us show we have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are common aligned and the pace is buying bigtime. All good things.
In previous posts I’ve commented on developing the site, CRE culture, investment plus much more. In this article I wish to target customers and how to hear them.
When we first launched beta and began 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 atlas button to the?” (DOH!). To people with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s not new. I for starters, having just a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed because when so many people are ready to present you with their benefit this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small businesses make smarter lease decisions.
In the beginning, I felt compelled to push nearly all our developing the site and assumptions coming from a pure real estate property perspective. I knew we might enhance the current tech in the marketplace, and we’re an advertisement real estate property 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 users. The whole core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped within the real estate property problem-solving mindset. As we grew together together, we became much less dependent on these assumptions plus much more plus much more engaged from the feedback from my users and others within the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not only a real estate property product, we’re a business product. How did find 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 get these experiences. However, I’m impressed by the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small businesses whenever they hear our mission, try out the platform and determine what we’re about. It’s normal for the caboodlers to shell out half an hour on one review (that your collection part takes about One minute FYI) because the small company community is definitely so hungry being heard. This can be a group who is putting their livelihoods at risk, every single day, to make 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 within the subsequent couple of weeks (SUPER excited to show everybody) but merely all out interviewing, listening and gaining knowledge from our core customers. I’ve found that because your product or service is provided for free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products ought to solve down to earth difficulties for down to earth people. This full release I do believe encompasses that mantra. We will share it soon.
As we grow our company you have a task to play here 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 your identiity being forced. Our company (and also the founders) do whatever needs doing to maneuver the ball forward. People ask about how the transition from CRE to Startup in tech is certainly going, if and when they make the leap too making use of their idea? I smile and have this: Could you handle the stress with this deadline, the subsequent sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and a lot considerably more. When you decide go for it . and create something that matters you become far more responsible. How? Well ideas are virtually worth nothing, possibly even I’ve learned 😉 It’s all within the execution and the team…and the culture. A strong culture will be the foundation for a strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
If you have a perception, it’s just yours, you’re only responsible for cultivating the minds themselves. Once you begin a business (from a perception) you’re responsible for the investors, (usually friends and family and families hard-earned money), you’re responsible for your people, their efforts along with their goals, you’re responsible for your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward every single day…but a majority of coming from all you’re responsible for yourself. There is no automatic paycheck or salary to get you to get up and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something you have desire for. I reckon that that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate simply how much arrange it is to begin a business, never underestimate how difficult at times may be, the stress is from the charts and the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you simply have desire for what you’re doing, if you feel in your mission as well as your culture as well as your team? This can be the best damn thing you’ll do all of your life.
No-one seriously knows where our path may lead. Startups inside their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and so are just starting to test them out in a live environment, time, our efforts and the market will dictate a portion in our success. I recognize this, our culture will dictate how we lead and how we communicate as people…and that’s something I’m satisfied with.
Hit me high on LinkedIn or [email protected]
I would never knock those who don’t desire to start their very own business, it’s far from simple and oftentimes personal considerations don’t take. If you do? Confer with your customers, listen and learn. They’ll show you what they need to find out and enhance your thinking, in every single facet of your product or service. You will find there’s new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and that we have confidence in that. I know what we’re doing here at Tenavox is the most rewarding professional connection with my well being, and that’s worth every bit of the stress, risk and passion we’re pouring with it every single day. It’s funny, when we began I wasn’t sure the best way to border the anguish points of the private business owner…Now? Problems in later life them because we live them. And a wise someone once said, “there’s no substitute for experience.”
We’d an excellent team building events last week in Austin too! Because of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned in for the full release within a couple weeks and many thanks for reading my ramblings of course.
Go ahead and 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 state meantime? Hit me high on LinkedIn or [email protected]