When i sit in an AirBnb I rented to the month of August (which has a failing AC within the Texas Summer) I was thinking it might be a fun time to execute a mental check of start-up life and also the transition to date. Always advantageous when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our team significantly the organization aspects is beginning to feel “normal.” If that’s a possibility. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out of the “storming” phase and now to the “normalization” phase of our own first year. I now use her Westpoint terminology within my common speech, confusing friends basic terms as Sitrep, bluf and naturally MFIC. I’ll let her enlighten all of you for the definitions. In my opinion, normalizing the group helps us show we have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are typical aligned and also the pace is collecting bigtime. Perfect things.
In the past posts I’ve commented on product development, CRE culture, investment plus much more. In this posting I would like to target customers and how to pay attention to them.
Whenever we first launched beta and commenced 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 atlas button with the?” (DOH!). To people with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s not new. I first, having only a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed by how many people are willing to provide you with their help with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small enterprises make smarter lease decisions.
Ahead of time, I felt compelled to push almost all our product development and assumptions coming from a pure real-estate perspective. I knew we could make improvements to the prevailing tech in the market, and we’re an industrial real-estate product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and that great stuff but our company offers a platform that is CRE based to users. The whole core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped within the real-estate problem-solving mindset. Once we grew together as a team, we became less and less dependent on these assumptions plus much more plus much more engaged by the feedback from the users and people within the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not really a real-estate product, we’re a business product. How did look for 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 the woking platform with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s a critical and foundational objective of ours to gather these experiences. However, I’m impressed by the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small enterprises once they hear our mission, test out the woking platform and determine what we’re all about. It’s not uncommon for our caboodlers to shell out 30 mins on a single review (that your collection part takes about 60 seconds FYI) since the business community is definitely so hungry being heard. It is a group that’s putting their livelihoods on the line, every day, to produce their business grow along with 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 merely coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release in the following couple weeks (SUPER excited to exhibit everybody) but merely plain interviewing, listening and gaining knowledge from our core customers. I’ve discovered that simply because your product is provided for free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products must solve real-world difficulties for real-world people. This full release I believe encompasses that mantra. We’re going to share it soon.
Once we grow our team all of us have a part to try out right 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 whom you are being forced. Our team (and also the founders) do whatever it takes to advance the ball forward. People inquire about how a transition from CRE to Startup in tech is going, whenever they dive right in too making use of their idea? I smile and enquire of this: Are you able to handle the stress on this deadline, the following sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and a lot more. When you choose to take the plunge and create something that matters you become much more responsible. How? Well ideas are basically worth nothing, approximately I’ve learned 😉 It’s all within the execution and also the team…and also the culture. A strong culture may be the foundation for the strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
If you have a concept, it’s just yours, you’re only responsible for cultivating the thoughts themselves. Once you begin a business (from a concept) you’re responsible for the investors, (usually friends and family and families hard-earned money), you’re responsible for your people, their efforts along with their goals, you’re responsible for your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward every day…but many of you’re responsible for yourself. There isn’t any automatic paycheck or salary to acquire off the bed and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something have passion for. I guess that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate the amount work it is usually to take up a business, never underestimate how difficult some days can be, the stress is off the charts and also the stakes couldn’t be higher. Though if you have passion for what you’re doing, if you think maybe in your mission along with your culture along with your team? This is the best damn thing you’ll do your entire life.
No person seriously knows where our path may lead. Startups in their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and so are just beginning to test them in the live environment, time, our efforts and also the market will dictate part of our own success. I do know this, the west will dictate the way you lead and just how we come together as people…which is something I’m happy with.
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I’d never knock those who don’t wish to start their own business, it’s faraway from basic and oftentimes personal considerations don’t so it can gain. If you do? Confer with your customers, listen and learn. They’re going to tell you what they need to determine and enhance your thinking, in most element of your product. There exists a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and now we rely on that. I am aware what we’re doing right here at Tenavox is easily the most rewarding professional experience with playing, and that’s worth just of the stress, risk and passion we’re pouring involved with it every day. It’s funny, once we started off I wasn’t sure just how to border the pain points of the small business operator…Now? Could them because we live them. Along with a wise someone once said, “there’s no alternative to experience.”
We’d a great team building events last week in Austin too! Thanks to #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned for more for our full release in two to three weeks and thanks for reading my ramblings remember.
You can 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 high on LinkedIn or [email protected]