As I sit in an AirBnb I rented for the month of August (having a failing AC from the Texas Summer) I believed it might be fun to execute a mental check of start-up life and also the transition thus 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 possible. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out from the “storming” phase and after this to the “normalization” phase of our 1st year. I now use her Westpoint terminology during my common speech, confusing friends by using these terms as Sitrep, bluf and of course MFIC. I’ll permit her to enlighten everyone about the definitions. In my experience, normalizing the group is helping us show we have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are all aligned and also the pace is picking up bigtime. Great things.
In previous posts I’ve commented on website, CRE culture, investment and more. On this page I want to target customers and the ways to hear them.
When we first launched beta and commenced 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 atlas button for that?” (DOH!). To those 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 everybody is ready to provide you with their benefit this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small enterprises make smarter lease decisions.
In early stages, I felt compelled to push the vast majority of our website and assumptions from the pure property perspective. I knew we will enhance the current tech in the marketplace, and we’re an industrial property product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and that good stuff but we provide a platform which is CRE based to our users. All of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped from the property problem-solving mindset. Even as grew together as a team, we became less dependent on these assumptions and more and more engaged through the feedback from your users and people from the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not simply a property product, we’re a company product. How did we discover 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 system with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s a critical and foundational purpose of ours to get these experiences. However, I’m impressed by the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small enterprises when they hear our mission, try out system and know what we’re about. It’s not uncommon for our caboodlers to pay 30 mins one review (that this collection part takes about One minute FYI) as the small company community is simply so hungry to be heard. This is a group that is putting their livelihoods exactly in danger, every single day, to generate their business grow in addition to their personal lives more enriched through their dreams. It’s about damn time someone sat down and paid attention to them.
So that’s what we’ve been doing. Not just coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release in the following couple weeks (SUPER excited to demonstrate everybody) but merely flat out interviewing, listening and gaining knowledge through our core customers. I’ve learned that just because your product is provided for free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products must solve down to earth damage to down to earth people. This full release I believe encompasses that mantra. We’ll share it soon.
Even as grow our team you have a part to play at Tenavox. Mine is heavily steeped in product, 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 are best at exposing your identiity pressurized. Our company (especially the founders) do whatever it takes to maneuver the ball forward. People enquire about the way the transition from CRE to Startup in tech is going, whenever they dive right in too with their idea? I smile and have this: Can you handle the strain on this deadline, the following sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and a lot a lot more. When you will decide go for it . and produce a thing that matters you in turn become a lot more responsible. How? Well ideas are just about worth nothing, approximately I’ve learned 😉 It’s all from the execution and also the team…and also the culture. A powerful culture could be the foundation for a strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
For those who have a concept, it’s just yours, you’re only to blame for cultivating the thoughts themselves. When you start a company (from a concept) you’re to blame for the investors, (usually your mates and families hard-earned money), you’re to blame for your people, their efforts in addition to their goals, you’re to blame for your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward every single day…but most of most you’re to blame for yourself. There is absolutely no automatic paycheck or salary to help you get to get up and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something you have adoration for. I guess that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate simply how much work it is always to start a business, never underestimate how difficult at times might be, the strain is from the charts and also the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you simply have adoration for what you’re doing, if you feel inside your mission along with your culture along with your team? This is actually the best damn thing you’ll do your whole life.
Nobody seriously knows where our path will lead. Startups in their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and they are just starting to test them out in a live environment, time, our efforts and also the market will dictate a portion of our success. I recognize this, the west will dictate how we lead and just how we interact as people…and that is something I’m happy with.
Struck me up on LinkedIn or [email protected]
I would never knock people who don’t wish to start their very own business, it’s faraway from easy and oftentimes personal considerations don’t take. If you undertake? Speak with your customers, listen and discover. They’re going to let you know what they desire to view and enhance your thinking, in every single element of your product. You will find a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and that we rely on that. I understand what we’re doing at Tenavox is regarded as the rewarding professional example of my well being, and that’s worth just with the stress, risk and keenness we’re pouring in it every single day. It’s funny, once we commenced I wasn’t sure the best way to border the anguish points with the small company owner…Now? We know them because we live them. As well as a wise someone once said, “there’s no substitute for experience.”
There were a great team building events a week ago in Austin too! Due to #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned in for our full release in two to three weeks and thanks for reading my ramblings of course.
You can comment below or require a run at many of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.
Have something to state meantime? Struck me up on LinkedIn or [email protected]