While i sit within an AirBnb I rented to the month of August (having a failing AC in the Texas Summer) I was thinking it may be a good time to do a mental check of start-up life along with the transition thus far. Always advantageous when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our team significantly the business enterprise aspect is starting to feel “normal.” If that’s a possibility. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out from the “storming” phase now in the “normalization” phase in our fresh. I now use her Westpoint terminology inside my common speech, confusing friends with your terms as Sitrep, bluf as well as MFIC. I’ll allow her to enlighten all of you on the definitions. To me, normalizing the c’s is assisting us show we now have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are all aligned along with the pace is buying bigtime. Perfect things.
In previous posts I’ve commented on product development, CRE culture, investment plus much more. In this article I want to target customers and how to tune in to them.
When we first launched beta and started 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 for your?” (DOH!). To prospects with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s not new. I for just one, having only a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed due to the fact everybody is willing to give you their benefit this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small enterprises make better lease decisions.
Ahead of time, I felt compelled to push nearly all our product development and assumptions from the pure real estate perspective. I knew we’re able to strengthen the existing tech in the marketplace, and we’re an advertisement real estate product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and that good stuff but you can expect a platform that is certainly CRE based to the users. All of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped in the real estate problem-solving mindset. As we grew together as a team, we became less dependent on these assumptions plus much more plus much more engaged through the feedback from my users and others in the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not only a real estate product, we’re a small business product. How did we find that out?
We asked.
Our caboodling team is otherwise engaged daily hand-collecting reviews in Houston and I’m humbled by their efforts. They’re helping us seed the woking 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 impressed by the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small enterprises when they hear our mission, test out the woking platform and determine what we’re about. It’s quite normal for our caboodlers to invest a half-hour using one review (which the collection part takes about 60 seconds FYI) because the small business community is simply so hungry to get heard. This is a group who’s putting their livelihoods at risk, each day, to create their business grow and 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 next couple weeks (SUPER excited to demonstrate everybody) but simply flat out interviewing, listening and learning from our core customers. I’ve found out that just because your products or services is free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products have to solve down to earth damage to down to earth people. This full release I do think encompasses that mantra. We’ll share it soon.
As we grow our team you have a part to learn here 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 best at exposing who you are pressurized. Our company (and especially the founders) do whatever it takes to maneuver the ball forward. People enquire about how the transition from CRE to Startup in tech is certainly going, if and when they take the plunge too using their idea? I smile and enquire of this: Is it possible to handle the worries of this deadline, the next sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and considerably more. When you decide to go for it and create something matters you feel far more responsible. How? Well ideas are pretty much worth nothing, roughly I’ve learned 😉 It’s all in the execution along with the team…along with the culture. A strong culture may be the foundation for the strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
If you have a thought, it’s just yours, you’re only in charge of cultivating the minds themselves. Once you start a small business (from a thought) you’re in charge of the investors, (usually your pals and families hard-earned money), you’re in charge of your people, their efforts and their goals, you’re in charge of your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward each day…but a majority of of you’re in charge of yourself. There isn’t any automatic paycheck or salary to get you up and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something have love for. I assume that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate how much push the button is always to start up a business, never underestimate how difficult some days could be, the worries is off the charts along with the stakes couldn’t be higher. But if you have love for what you’re doing, if you believe within your mission along with your culture along with your team? Here is the best damn thing you’ll do your whole life.
No one seriously knows where our path may lead. Startups in their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and therefore are just starting to test them out in a live environment, time, our efforts along with the market will dictate a portion in our success. I do know this, the west will dictate the way you lead and exactly how we work together as people…and that is something I’m pleased with.
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I’d personally never knock people who don’t wish to start their own business, it’s not even close to basic and oftentimes personal considerations don’t so it can gain. If you do? Confer with your customers, listen and learn. They’ll show you what they need to determine and improve your thinking, in each and every element of your products or services. There exists a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and that we trust that. I know what we’re doing here at Tenavox is among the most rewarding professional connection with playing, and that’s worth just of the stress, risk and keenness we’re pouring into it each day. It’s funny, when we started off I wasn’t sure precisely how to frame the pain sensation points of the small business operator…Now? Could them because we live them. As well as a wise someone once said, “there’s no replacement experience.”
There were an incredible team building events a week ago in Austin too! Because of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned in for our full release within two to three weeks and many thanks for reading my ramblings remember.
You can comment below or require a run at some of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.
Have something to express meantime? Hit me through to LinkedIn or [email protected]