Because i sit here in an AirBnb I rented for your month of August (which has a failing AC in the Texas Summer) I believed it could be a fun time to execute a mental check of start-up life and the transition so far. Always good when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown we significantly the business enterprise aspect is beginning to feel “normal.” If that’s a possibility. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out from the “storming” phase and now in to the “normalization” phase of our first year. Now i use her Westpoint terminology in my common speech, confusing friends basic terms as Sitrep, bluf not to mention MFIC. I’ll let her enlighten everyone around the definitions. To me, normalizing the c’s is helping us show we now have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are aligned and the pace is obtaining bigtime. Nothing but good things.
Over the posts I’ve commented on developing the site, CRE culture, investment plus more. On this page I wish to target customers and how to hear them.
When we first launched beta and began 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 guide button for your?” (DOH!). To those with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s nothing new. I for just one, having only a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed because when most people are willing to offer you their help with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small business owners make smarter lease decisions.
Ahead of time, I felt compelled to push most our developing the site and assumptions coming from a pure real-estate perspective. I knew we could make improvements to the current tech in the market, and we’re an advertisement real-estate product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and all so good stuff but you can expect a platform that’s CRE based to your users. Each of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped in the real-estate problem-solving mindset. As we grew together together, we became much less just a few these assumptions plus more plus more engaged with the feedback from my users and people in the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not just a real-estate product, we’re an enterprise product. How did find that out?
We asked.
Our caboodling team has gone out 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 goal of ours to get these experiences. However, I’m impressed by the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small business owners after they hear our mission, check out the working platform and understand what we’re information on. It’s quite normal for our caboodlers to shell out 30 mins on a single review (that the collection part takes about A minute FYI) since the small enterprise community is simply so hungry to get heard. This can be a group who is putting their livelihoods on the line, 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 listened to them.
So that’s what we’ve been doing. Not just coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release here in another couple weeks (SUPER excited to indicate everybody) but simply flat out interviewing, listening and learning from our core customers. I’ve discovered that because your products or services costs nothing doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products ought to solve real life difficulties for real life people. This full release I do believe encompasses that mantra. We’ll share it soon.
As we grow we we all have a task to experience 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 best at exposing what you are under time limits. Our team (and especially the founders) do anything to advance the ball forward. People question the way the transition from CRE to Startup in tech will go, whenever they dive right in too with their idea? I smile and have this: Can you handle the stress with this deadline, another sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and a lot far more. When you elect to go for it and create a thing that matters you feel a lot more responsible. How? Well ideas are basically worth nothing, possibly even I’ve learned 😉 It’s all in the execution and the team…and the culture. A strong culture could be the foundation to get a strong company.
Turning ideas into reality, together.
When you have an idea, it’s just yours, you’re only accountable for cultivating the ideas themselves. Once you start an enterprise (from an idea) you’re accountable for the investors, (usually your friends 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 each day…but many of all you’re accountable for yourself. There is absolutely no automatic paycheck or salary to acquire up out of bed and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something you have desire for. I reckon that that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate simply how much push the button is usually to start up a business, never underestimate how difficult at times may be, the stress is over charts and the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you simply have desire for what you’re doing, if you think inside your mission along with your culture along with your team? Here is the best damn thing you’ll do your entire life.
No one seriously knows where our path will lead. Startups in their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and they are just beginning to test them within a live environment, time, our efforts and the market will dictate part of our success. I know this, our culture will dictate the way you lead and exactly how we work together as people…which is something I’m happy with.
Struck me up on LinkedIn or [email protected]
I’d never knock people that don’t need to start their unique business, it’s far from easy and oftentimes personal considerations don’t so it can have. Should you choose? Speak with your customers, listen and discover. They will tell you what they really want to see and increase your thinking, in each and every area of your products or services. You will find a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and now we believe in that. I know what we’re doing here at Tenavox is easily the most rewarding professional example of my entire life, and that’s worth every bit of the stress, risk and keenness we’re pouring involved with it each day. It’s funny, if we began I wasn’t sure precisely how to border the anguish points of the small business operator…Now? We know them because we live them. Plus a wise someone once said, “there’s no replacement for experience.”
We’d an incredible team building events last weekend in Austin too! As a result of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!
Stay tuned for our full release here in a couple weeks and thanks for reading my ramblings of course.
Twenty-four hours a day comment below or please take a run at a few of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.
Have something to state meantime? Struck me up on LinkedIn or [email protected]