As I sit in an AirBnb I rented to the month of August (which has a failing AC in the Texas Summer) I figured it will be a good time to do a mental check of start-up life as well as the transition so far. Always beneficial when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown all of us significantly the business enterprise aspect starts to feel “normal.” If that’s possible. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out of your “storming” phase and now to the “normalization” phase of our newbie. I now use her Westpoint terminology inside my common speech, confusing friends with such terms as Sitrep, bluf as well as MFIC. I’ll allow her to enlighten everybody on the definitions. If you ask me, normalizing the team helps us show we have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are aligned as well as the pace is collecting bigtime. All good things.

In previous posts I’ve commented on product, CRE culture, investment and much more. In this posting I must target customers and how to hear them.

Whenever we first launched beta and commenced collecting feedback, the response was overwhelming from your initial users. “Change this,” “I don’t under this wording here,” “consider adding X,” “is there a atlas button to the?” (DOH!). To prospects with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s nothing new. I first, having only a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed by how most people are prepared to present you with their assistance with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small enterprises make better lease decisions.

Early on, I felt compelled to push nearly all our product and assumptions from your pure property perspective. I knew we will enhance the existing tech in the industry, and we’re a commercial property product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and that good stuff but you can expect a platform that is certainly CRE based to users. Our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped in the property problem-solving mindset. Once we grew together as a team, we became less and less dependent upon these assumptions and much more and much more engaged from the feedback from your users and others in the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not simply a property product, we’re a small business 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 the working platform with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s a vital and foundational goal of ours to recover these experiences. However, I’m pleasantly surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small enterprises when they hear our mission, check out the working platform and determine what we’re about. It’s quite normal for caboodlers to spend 30 mins using one review (which the collection part takes about A minute FYI) since the business community is merely so hungry being heard. It is a group that’s putting their livelihoods exactly in danger, daily, to create their business grow along with their personal lives more enriched through their dreams. It’s about damn time someone sat down and heard them.

So that’s what we’ve been doing. Not merely coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release in another few weeks (SUPER excited to show everybody) but simply all out interviewing, listening and learning from our core customers. I’ve found that just because your products or services is free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products need to solve down to earth trouble for down to earth people. This full release I do think encompasses that mantra. We’ll share it soon.

Once we grow all of us everyone has a job to experience 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 might be best at exposing whom you are being forced. All of us (and particularly the founders) do no matter what to move the ball forward. People enquire about how a transition from CRE to Startup in tech is certainly going, whenever they make the leap too using idea? I smile and get this: Could you handle the load of this deadline, another sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and far far more. When you will decide to go for it and make something matters you then become far more responsible. How? Well ideas are virtually worth nothing, possibly even I’ve learned 😉 It’s all in the execution as well as the team…as well as the culture. A strong culture will be the foundation for any strong company.

Turning ideas into reality, together.

If you have a concept, it’s just yours, you’re only responsible for cultivating the ideas themselves. When you start a small 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 daily…most of most you’re responsible for yourself. There is absolutely no automatic paycheck or salary to help you get off the bed and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something you have adoration for. I assume that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate simply how much push the button would be to begin a business, never underestimate how difficult at times might be, the load is off the charts as well as the stakes couldn’t be higher. Though if you have adoration for what you’re doing, if you think within your mission and your culture and your team? This is actually the best damn thing you’ll do the whole life.

Nobody seriously knows where our path will lead. Startups of their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and are just starting to test them out . in a live environment, time, our efforts as well as the market will dictate a portion of our success. I recognize this, our culture will dictate the way you lead and just how we work together as people…that is certainly something I’m pleased with.
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I might never knock people who don’t want to start their very own business, it’s far from simple and easy , oftentimes personal considerations don’t so it can have. If you undertake? Talk to your customers, listen and learn. They are going to let you know what they need to find out and boost your thinking, in most part of your products or services. We have a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” so we have confidence in that. I understand what we’re doing only at Tenavox is easily the most rewarding professional experience with my well being, and that’s worth just in the stress, risk and keenness we’re pouring in it daily. It’s funny, when we started off I wasn’t sure just how to border the anguish points in the private business owner…Now? Problems in later life them because we live them. Along with a wise someone once said, “there’s no substitute for experience.”

There was an incredible team development a week ago in Austin too! Thanks to #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!

Stay tuned for more for full release in two to three weeks and thank you for reading my ramblings keep in mind.

Feel free to comment below or require 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]