Because i sit in an AirBnb I rented for your month of August (which has a failing AC in the Texas Summer) I figured it may be a fun time to do a mental check of start-up life and the transition thus far. Always advantageous when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our team significantly the business enterprise side of things is beginning to feel “normal.” If that’s plausible. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re from the “storming” phase now in the “normalization” phase in our 1st year. Now i use her Westpoint terminology in my common speech, confusing friends basic terms as Sitrep, bluf and of course MFIC. I’ll allow her to enlighten everybody around the definitions. In my experience, normalizing the team is assisting us show we have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are aligned and the pace is buying bigtime. All good things.
In past posts I’ve commented on developing the site, CRE culture, investment plus much more. In this article I would like to give attention to customers and the way to hear them.
Whenever we first launched beta and started 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 with the?” (DOH!). To prospects with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s not new. I for just one, having just a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed since so many people are ready to provide you with their help with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small businesses make smarter lease decisions.
In the beginning, I felt compelled to push most our developing the site and assumptions from your pure real estate property perspective. I knew we’re able to enhance the prevailing tech in the marketplace, and we’re an advert real estate property product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and so good stuff but we offer a platform which is CRE based to the users. The whole core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped in the real estate property problem-solving mindset. Even as we grew together as a team, we became much less dependent on these assumptions plus much more plus much more engaged with the feedback from your users and folks in the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not simply a real estate property product, we’re a small business 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 the working 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 surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small businesses once they hear our mission, try out the working platform and know what we’re all about. It’s normal for the caboodlers to shell out 30 mins on a single review (which the collection part takes about A minute FYI) for the reason that small enterprise community is definitely so hungry to become heard. This is a group that is putting their livelihoods exactly in danger, every 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 followed them.
So that’s what we’ve been doing. Not simply coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release in the next couple weeks (SUPER excited to demonstrate everybody) but flat out interviewing, listening and gaining knowledge from our core customers. I’ve discovered that because your product is free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products must solve real-world problems for real-world people. This full release I do believe encompasses that mantra. We are going to share it soon.
Even as we grow our team all of us have a task to play right 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 are best at exposing who you are pressurized. We (and also the founders) do anything to move the ball forward. People inquire about how the transition from CRE to Startup in tech will go, whenever they take the plunge too with their idea? I smile and get this: Is it possible to handle the worries with this deadline, the next sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and far a lot more. When you elect to take the plunge and produce a thing that matters you feel a lot more responsible. How? Well ideas are virtually worth nothing, approximately I’ve learned 😉 It’s all in the execution and the team…and the culture. A powerful culture will be the foundation for the strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
If you have a thought, it’s just yours, you’re only accountable for cultivating the ideas themselves. Once you start a small business (from a thought) you’re accountable for the investors, (usually your mates and families hard-earned money), you’re accountable for your people, their efforts as well as their goals, you’re accountable for your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward every day…most of all you’re accountable for yourself. There’s no automatic paycheck or salary to get you up out of bed and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something have desire for. I assume that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate the amount push the button would be to start a business, never underestimate how difficult some days might be, the worries is over charts and the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you simply have desire for what you’re doing, if you believe inside your mission along with your culture along with your team? This is actually the best damn thing you’ll do your entire life.
No one seriously knows where our path may lead. Startups inside their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and therefore are beginning to test them out . inside a live environment, time, our efforts and the market will dictate a percentage in our success. I recognize this, the west will dictate the way you lead and the way we work together as people…that is certainly something I’m happy with.
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I’d never knock people that don’t wish to start their unique business, it’s faraway from easy and oftentimes personal considerations don’t so it can gain. If you undertake? Speak with your customers, listen and learn. They are going to tell you what they really want to find out and boost your thinking, in every single element of your product. You will find a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and that we have confidence in that. I realize what we’re doing right here at Tenavox is the most rewarding professional experience of my life, and that’s worth every bit in the stress, risk and fervour we’re pouring in it every day. It’s funny, if we began I wasn’t sure precisely how to border the anguish points in the small business owner…Now? Could them because we live them. Plus a wise someone once said, “there’s no alternative to experience.”
There was a fantastic team building last week in Austin too! Thanks to #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned in for the full release in 2-3 weeks and thanks for reading my ramblings remember.
Twenty-four hours a day 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 say meantime? Struck me on LinkedIn or [email protected]
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