As I sit here in an AirBnb I rented for that month of August (which has a failing AC within the Texas Summer) I believed it might be a great time to do a mental check of start-up life and also the transition up to now. Always beneficial when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our company significantly the business side is starting to feel “normal.” If that’s plausible. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out of the “storming” phase now in to the “normalization” phase of our fresh. I now use her Westpoint terminology within my common speech, confusing friends with such terms as Sitrep, bluf as well as MFIC. I’ll allow her to enlighten everyone about the definitions. In my opinion, normalizing the group is helping us show we’ve got momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are aligned and also the pace is picking up bigtime. Perfect things.

In previous posts I’ve commented on developing the site, CRE culture, investment and much more. In this posting I wish to concentrate on customers and the way to hear them.

When we first launched beta and commenced 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 atlas button with the?” (DOH!). To those with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s nothing new. I first, having just a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed by how many people are happy to give you their assistance with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small business owners make better lease decisions.

In early stages, I felt compelled to push nearly all our developing the site and assumptions from the pure property perspective. I knew we will make improvements to the present tech in the industry, and we’re a commercial property product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and many types of that great stuff but we provide a platform that’s CRE based to the users. Each of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped within the property problem-solving mindset. Even as grew together together, we became less reliant on these assumptions and much more and much more engaged from the feedback from my users and others within the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not really a property product, we’re an enterprise 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 platform with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s a crucial and foundational objective of ours to recover these experiences. However, I’m pleasantly surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small business owners once they hear our mission, try out the platform and understand what we’re all about. It’s not unusual for your caboodlers to spend thirty minutes one review (that your collection part takes about A minute FYI) since the small enterprise community is just so hungry to become heard. This can be a group that is putting their livelihoods exactly in danger, every single 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 here in the next couple weeks (SUPER excited to demonstrate everybody) but just plain interviewing, listening and studying under our core customers. I’ve discovered that even though your products or services is free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products have to solve real world trouble for real world people. This full release I do think encompasses that mantra. We will share it soon.

Even as grow our company we all have a role to experience right here 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 under pressure. We (and also the founders) do anything to maneuver the ball forward. People ask about the way the transition from CRE to Startup in tech will go, should they make the leap too with their idea? I smile and ask this: Could you handle the stress on this deadline, the next sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and a lot far more. When you choose to take the plunge and build something matters you then become much more responsible. How? Well ideas are basically worth nothing, possibly even I’ve learned 😉 It’s all within the execution and also the team…and also the culture. A strong culture may be the foundation to get a strong company.

Turning ideas into reality, together.

When you’ve got an idea, it’s just yours, you’re only responsible for cultivating the minds themselves. Once you begin an enterprise (from an idea) you’re responsible for the investors, (usually your pals 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 single day…most coming from all 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 have desire for. I guess that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate the amount push the button is to start a business, never underestimate how difficult some days might be, the stress is from the charts and also the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you simply have desire for what you’re doing, if you feel with your mission plus your culture plus your team? Here is the best damn thing you’ll do all of your life.

No-one seriously knows where our path will lead. Startups of their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and so are just starting to test them out . within a live environment, time, our efforts and also the market will dictate a portion of our success. I recognize this, our culture will dictate how we lead and the way we come together as people…and that is something I’m satisfied with.
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I’d personally never knock people that don’t desire to start their particular business, it’s faraway from simple and oftentimes personal considerations don’t so it can have. Should you? Talk to your customers, listen and learn. They are going to tell you what they want to view and boost your thinking, in each and every element of your products or services. We have a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and that we believe in that. I realize what we’re doing right here at Tenavox is easily the most rewarding professional example of playing, and that’s worth just in the stress, risk and fervour we’re pouring with it every single day. It’s funny, once we began I wasn’t sure the best way to frame this points in the small business operator…Now? Could them because we live them. Plus a wise someone once said, “there’s no replacement experience.”

There were a great team building events last week in Austin too! Thanks to #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!

Keep tuned in for your full release here in a month and thanks for reading my ramblings as always.

Feel free to comment below or require a run at many of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.

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