As I sit in an AirBnb I rented for your month of August (using a failing AC from the Texas Summer) I thought it might be a fun time to execute a mental check of start-up life along with the transition to date. Always advantageous when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our team significantly the business aspects is beginning to feel “normal.” If that’s a chance. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out of the “storming” phase and after this into the “normalization” phase of our own newbie. Now i use her Westpoint terminology within my common speech, confusing friends by using these terms as Sitrep, bluf as well as MFIC. I’ll allow her to enlighten all of you on the definitions. In my opinion, normalizing the c’s is helping us show we’ve momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are common aligned along with the pace is collecting bigtime. Perfect things.
In previous posts I’ve commented on developing the site, CRE culture, investment plus much more. In this post I would like to concentrate on customers and the ways to listen to them.
If we first launched beta and began collecting feedback, the response was overwhelming from the initial users. “Change this,” “I don’t under this wording here,” “consider adding X,” “is there a guide button with the?” (DOH!). To those with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s nothing new. I for just one, having just a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed because when everybody is ready to provide you with their help with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small businesses make smarter lease decisions.
Ahead of time, I felt compelled to push almost all our developing the site and assumptions coming from a pure real estate perspective. I knew we’re able to improve on the existing tech in the marketplace, and we’re an industrial real estate product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and all a good stuff but we provide a platform that is certainly CRE based to users. The whole core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped from the real estate problem-solving mindset. As we grew together as a team, we became much less dependent upon these assumptions plus much more plus much more engaged by the feedback from the users and people from the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not simply a real estate product, we’re a business product. How did look for 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 a critical and foundational objective of ours to recover these experiences. However, I’m pleasantly surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small businesses when they hear our mission, test out the working platform and determine what we’re all about. It’s not unusual for our caboodlers to invest a half-hour using one review (that your collection part takes about A minute FYI) since the small business community is definitely so hungry being heard. This is the group that is putting their livelihoods at stake, every single day, to create their business grow in addition to 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 just coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release in the next couple weeks (SUPER excited to indicate everybody) but simply flat out interviewing, listening and gaining knowledge from our core customers. I’ve found out that just because your product or service costs nothing doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products must solve down to earth difficulties for down to earth people. This full release I do believe encompasses that mantra. We are going to share it soon.
As we grow our team everyone has 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 better at exposing who you are being forced. Our team (and also the founders) do whatever needs doing to move the ball forward. People question how the transition from CRE to Startup in tech goes, if and when they make the leap too using their idea? I smile and ask this: Is it possible to handle the worries on this deadline, the next sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and a lot considerably more. When you decide to go for it and create something which matters you then become a lot more responsible. How? Well ideas are just about worth nothing, possibly even I’ve learned 😉 It’s all from 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.
When you have a thought, it’s just yours, you’re only in charge of cultivating the ideas themselves. When you start a business (from a thought) you’re in charge of the investors, (usually your friends and families hard-earned money), you’re in charge of your people, their efforts in addition to their goals, you’re in charge of your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward every single day…but most of all you’re in charge of yourself. There is no automatic paycheck or salary to obtain up out of bed and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something have adoration for. I assume that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate the amount arrange it is to take up a business, never underestimate how difficult at times might be, the worries is over charts along with the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you have adoration for what you’re doing, if you believe within your mission plus your culture plus your team? This is the best damn thing you’ll do your entire life.
Nobody seriously knows where our path may lead. Startups in their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and therefore are just beginning to test them out inside a live environment, time, our efforts along with the market will dictate some of our own success. I know this, the west will dictate how you lead and how we come together as people…which is something I’m pleased with.
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I would never knock people that don’t need to start their own business, it’s not even close to simple and easy , oftentimes personal considerations don’t take. Should you? Speak with your customers, listen and learn. They are going to show you what they desire to see and increase your thinking, in every single element of your product or service. You will find a 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 experience with my well being, and that’s worth just from the stress, risk and keenness we’re pouring into it every single day. It’s funny, when we started out I wasn’t sure exactly how to frame this points from the private business owner…Now? Could them because we live them. As well as a wise someone once said, “there’s no replacement for experience.”
We’d an incredible team building a week ago in Austin too! As a result of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Keep tuned in for our full release in a month and appreciate your reading my ramblings keep in mind.
Feel free to comment below or please take a run at many of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.
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