When i sit within an AirBnb I rented for your month of August (which has a failing AC from the Texas Summer) I thought it might be a good time to execute a mental check of start-up life and the transition thus far. Always good when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our company significantly the organization side of things is beginning to feel “normal.” If that’s a possibility. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re from the “storming” phase and today to the “normalization” phase individuals first year. Now i use her Westpoint terminology in my common speech, confusing friends with such terms as Sitrep, bluf as well as MFIC. I’ll allow her to enlighten all of you about the definitions. In my experience, normalizing the team is assisting us show we now have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are all aligned and the pace is collecting bigtime. Great things.

In past posts I’ve commented on product development, CRE culture, investment and much more. On this page I would like to focus on customers and the way to listen to them.

Once 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 map button to the?” (DOH!). To the people with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s not new. I for just one, having only a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed since so many people are prepared to provide you with their benefit this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small businesses make better lease decisions.

Ahead of time, I felt compelled to push most our product development and assumptions from a pure real estate property perspective. I knew we’re able to enhance the prevailing tech in the market, and we’re an advert real estate property product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and all sorts of so good stuff but we provide a platform that is CRE based to our users. All of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped from the real estate property problem-solving mindset. As we grew together together, we became less and less dependent on these assumptions and much more and much more engaged with the feedback from your users and people from the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not just a real estate property 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 woking platform with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s an important and foundational objective of ours to gather these experiences. However, I’m pleasantly surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small businesses whenever they hear our mission, try the woking platform and know what we’re information on. It’s normal for the caboodlers to shell out half an hour using one review (which the collection part takes about 60 seconds FYI) because the small business community is simply so hungry to be heard. It is a group who’s putting their livelihoods at stake, each day, to make their business grow along with 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 merely coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release within the following few weeks (SUPER excited to demonstrate everybody) but simply flat out interviewing, listening and gaining knowledge through our core customers. I’ve found out that because your products is provided for free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products have to solve real-world difficulties for real-world people. This full release I think encompasses that mantra. We will share it soon.

As we grow our company everyone has a part to play here at Tenavox. Mine is heavily steeped in product, real estate 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 what you are under time limits. Our team (and especially the founders) do anything to advance the ball forward. People enquire about how the transition from CRE to Startup in tech is going, as long as they take the plunge too using idea? I smile and have this: Are you able to handle the worries with this deadline, the following sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and much considerably more. When you will decide go for it . and create a thing that matters you in turn become far more responsible. How? Well ideas are pretty much worth nothing, possibly even I’ve learned 😉 It’s all from the execution and the team…and the culture. A solid culture will be the foundation for a strong company.

Turning ideas into reality, together.

If you have a perception, it’s just yours, you’re only responsible for cultivating the minds themselves. When you begin an enterprise (from a perception) you’re responsible for the investors, (usually your friends 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 each day…but a majority of coming from all you’re responsible for yourself. There’s no automatic paycheck or salary to obtain off the bed and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something you have love for. I suppose that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate simply how much push the button is to start up a business, never underestimate how difficult some days may be, the worries is from the charts and the stakes couldn’t be higher. But if you have love for what you’re doing, if you think within your mission as well as your culture as well as your team? This can be the best damn thing you’ll do your entire life.

No person seriously knows where our path will lead. Startups of their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and they are just starting to test them out . in a live environment, time, our efforts and the market will dictate a percentage individuals success. I recognize this, our culture will dictate how we lead and how we work together as people…that is certainly something I’m satisfied with.
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I’d personally never knock people who don’t wish to start their very own business, it’s faraway from basic and oftentimes personal considerations don’t allow it. If you do? Confer with your customers, listen and learn. They will let you know what they want to find out and increase your thinking, in every single area of your products. You will find there’s new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and we believe in that. I know what we’re doing here at Tenavox is among the most rewarding professional connection with my well being, and that’s worth just of the stress, risk and fervour we’re pouring in it each day. It’s funny, once we started off I wasn’t sure precisely how to border the pain sensation points of the private business owner…Now? We understand them because we live them. Along with a wise someone once said, “there’s no alternative to experience.”

There were a great team building events last weekend in Austin too! As a result of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!

Stay tuned in for the full release within 2-3 weeks and appreciate your reading my ramblings remember.

Twenty-four hours a day 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 say meantime? Hit me up on LinkedIn or [email protected]