When i sit in an AirBnb I rented for the month of August (which has a failing AC from the Texas Summer) I thought it might be a great time to do a mental check of start-up life and also the transition so far. Always advantageous when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our team significantly the company side starts to feel “normal.” If that’s plausible. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re from the “storming” phase and after this in the “normalization” phase in our newbie. I now use her Westpoint terminology within my common speech, confusing friends with such terms as Sitrep, bluf as well as MFIC. I’ll permit her to enlighten everybody about the definitions. To me, normalizing the team is helping us show we’ve momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are common aligned and also the pace is collecting bigtime. All good things.
In the past posts I’ve commented on website, CRE culture, investment plus much more. In this article I want to focus on customers and ways to hear them.
When we first launched beta and commenced 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 roadmap button to the?” (DOH!). To those 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 by how many people are prepared to offer you their assistance with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help smaller businesses make better lease decisions.
Early on, I felt compelled to push nearly all our website and assumptions from the pure real estate perspective. I knew we could enhance the existing tech on the market, and we’re an industrial real estate product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and all sorts of a good stuff but our company offers a platform that is CRE based to the users. All of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped from the real estate problem-solving mindset. As we grew together as a team, we became less dependent upon these assumptions plus much more plus much more engaged from the feedback from my users and others from the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not only a real estate product, we’re an enterprise product. How did find that out?
We asked.
Our caboodling team is 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 an important and foundational purpose of ours to get these experiences. However, I’m impressed by the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, smaller businesses whenever they hear our mission, check out system and know very well what we’re about. It’s not unusual for the caboodlers to shell out half an hour on a single review (that this collection part takes about One minute FYI) for the reason that small enterprise community is simply so hungry being heard. This is a group who’s putting their livelihoods on the line, daily, to generate their business grow along with 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 merely coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release in the subsequent couple weeks (SUPER excited to demonstrate everybody) but plain interviewing, listening and studying under our core customers. I’ve learned that simply because your product is free of charge doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products ought to solve real life problems for real life people. This full release I believe encompasses that mantra. We are going to share it soon.
As we grow our team we all have a task to play 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 might be best at exposing who you are being forced. Our team (and particularly the founders) do anything to maneuver the ball forward. People ask about how a transition from CRE to Startup in tech will go, if and when they make the leap too making use of their idea? I smile and ask this: Could you handle the worries on this deadline, the subsequent sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and a lot far more. When you will decide to go for it and make something which matters you feel a lot more responsible. How? Well ideas are pretty much worth nothing, or so I’ve learned 😉 It’s all from the execution and also the team…and also the culture. A powerful culture will be the foundation to get a strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
For those who have an idea, it’s just yours, you’re only in charge of cultivating the minds themselves. When you start an enterprise (from an idea) you’re in charge of the investors, (usually your mates and families hard-earned money), you’re in charge of your people, their efforts along with their goals, you’re in charge of your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward daily…but a majority of of you’re in charge of yourself. There is no automatic paycheck or salary to help you get up and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something have adoration for. I suppose that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate just how much push the button is to start a business, never underestimate how difficult some days might be, the worries is over charts and also the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you simply have adoration for what you’re doing, if you believe within your mission as well as your culture as well as your team? This is the best damn thing you’ll do your entire life.
Nobody seriously knows where our path will lead. Startups within their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and therefore are just starting to test them out within a live environment, time, our efforts and also the market will dictate part in our success. I recognize this, the west will dictate the way you lead and exactly how we work together as people…that is certainly something I’m pleased with.
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I’d personally never knock people that don’t want to start their unique business, it’s faraway from basic and oftentimes personal considerations don’t allow it. If you undertake? Speak with your customers, listen and learn. They’re going to tell you what they need to see and improve your thinking, in every area of your product. You will find a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and now we trust that. I understand what we’re doing here at Tenavox is regarded as the rewarding professional connection with my well being, and that’s worth equally from the stress, risk and passion we’re pouring into it daily. It’s funny, if we began I wasn’t sure the best way to border the pain points from the private business owner…Now? We know them because we live them. Plus a wise someone once said, “there’s no replacement for experience.”
There were an excellent team development last week in Austin too! Due to #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned for the full release in 2-3 weeks and appreciate your reading my ramblings remember.
Feel free to comment below or please take a run at some of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.
Have something to convey meantime? Struck me up on LinkedIn or [email protected]