As I sit here in an AirBnb I rented for the month of August (with a failing AC in the Texas Summer) I figured it might be a fun time to execute a mental check of start-up life along with the transition up to now. Always advantageous when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our team significantly the business enterprise side starts to feel “normal.” If that’s possible. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out of the “storming” phase and after this in to the “normalization” phase individuals newbie. I now use her Westpoint terminology in my common speech, confusing friends with such terms as Sitrep, bluf and naturally MFIC. I’ll allow her to enlighten everyone about the definitions. In my opinion, normalizing the c’s is helping us show we now have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are typical aligned along with the pace is buying bigtime. Great things.
Over the posts I’ve commented on product development, CRE culture, investment plus much more. In this article I must focus on customers and the way to listen to them.
If we first launched beta and started 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 for that?” (DOH!). To people with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s not new. I for starters, having just a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed due to the fact everybody is willing to present you with their help with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help smaller businesses make smarter lease decisions.
In the beginning, I felt compelled to push nearly all our product development and assumptions coming from a pure property perspective. I knew we will improve on the present tech on the market, and we’re an industrial property product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and so good stuff but our company offers a platform that is certainly CRE based to our users. All of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped in the property problem-solving mindset. As we grew together together, we became less and less reliant on these assumptions plus much more plus much more engaged with the feedback from the users and people in the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not simply a 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 woking platform with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s a crucial and foundational purpose of ours to collect these experiences. However, I’m amazed at the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, smaller businesses when they hear our mission, try the woking platform and determine what we’re all about. It’s normal for caboodlers to invest thirty minutes on a single review (that this collection part takes about A minute FYI) for the reason that small business community is simply so hungry to get heard. This is the group that is putting their livelihoods exactly in danger, each day, to produce 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 here in the subsequent couple of weeks (SUPER excited to demonstrate everybody) but just flat out interviewing, listening and studying under our core customers. I’ve discovered that simply because your product or service is provided for free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products need to solve down to earth difficulties for down to earth people. This full release I believe encompasses that mantra. We’re going to share it soon.
As we grow our team everyone has a role to learn only 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 would be better at exposing what you are pressurized. We (and also the founders) do whatever needs doing to go the ball forward. People enquire about how a transition from CRE to Startup in tech is certainly going, should they make the leap too making use of their idea? I smile and ask this: Could you handle the stress of the deadline, the subsequent sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and much far more. When you decide to take the plunge and create something which matters you in turn become far more responsible. How? Well ideas are basically worth nothing, roughly I’ve learned 😉 It’s all in the execution along with the team…along with the culture. A strong culture will be the foundation for the strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
If you have a concept, it’s just yours, you’re only to blame for cultivating the minds themselves. When you start a small business (from a concept) you’re to blame for the investors, (usually your pals and families hard-earned money), you’re to blame for your people, their efforts as well as their goals, you’re to blame for your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward each day…but many of all you’re to blame for yourself. There’s no automatic paycheck or salary to obtain to get up and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something you have love for. I assume that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate just how much arrange it is always to take up a business, never underestimate how difficult at times could be, the stress is from the charts along with the stakes couldn’t be higher. But if you have love for what you’re doing, if you think maybe within your mission and your culture and your team? This is 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 so are beginning to test them out . within a live environment, time, our efforts along with the market will dictate some individuals success. I understand this, the west will dictate the way you lead and exactly how we interact as people…which is something I’m happy with.
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I might never knock those that don’t desire to start their particular business, it’s far from basic and oftentimes personal considerations don’t take. Should you choose? Speak to your customers, listen and learn. They will tell you what they desire to see and enhance your thinking, in every single element of your product or service. You will find there’s new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and we have confidence in that. I know what we’re doing only at Tenavox is the most rewarding professional experience with my well being, and that’s worth equally in the stress, risk and keenness we’re pouring in it each day. It’s funny, once we started out I wasn’t sure precisely how to border the pain sensation points in the small business owner…Now? We know them because we live them. Plus a wise someone once said, “there’s no replacement experience.”
There was an incredible team building events last week in Austin too! Due to #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned in for full release here in a couple weeks and many thanks for reading my ramblings remember.
Twenty-four hours a day comment below or please take a run at some of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.
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