As I sit in an AirBnb I rented for your month of August (having a failing AC inside the Texas Summer) I thought it may be a good time to do a mental check of start-up life along with the transition thus far. Always good when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown all of us significantly the business side is beginning to feel “normal.” If that’s a possibility. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out of your “storming” phase now into the “normalization” phase of our own 1st year. Now i use her Westpoint terminology in my common speech, confusing friends basic terms as Sitrep, bluf and naturally MFIC. I’ll permit her to enlighten all of you around the definitions. In my experience, normalizing they helps us show we have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are common aligned along with the pace is collecting bigtime. All good things.

In past posts I’ve commented on developing the site, CRE culture, investment plus much more. In this article I want to target customers and the ways to listen to them.

If 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 prospects 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 because when so many people are happy to offer you their assist with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help small business owners make better lease decisions.

Early on, I felt compelled to push almost all our developing the site and assumptions from your pure real-estate perspective. I knew we will improve on the current tech in the market, and we’re an industrial real-estate product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and many types of so good stuff but our company offers a platform which is CRE based to users. Each of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped inside the real-estate problem-solving mindset. Even as grew together together, we became less dependent upon these assumptions plus much more plus much more engaged by the feedback from my users and folks inside the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not simply a real-estate product, we’re a business product. How did look for that out?

We asked.

Our caboodling team is otherwise engaged daily hand-collecting reviews in Houston and I’m humbled by their efforts. They’re helping us seed system with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s a crucial and foundational objective of ours to gather these experiences. However, I’m surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, small business owners when they hear our mission, test out system and know what we’re exactly about. It’s not unusual for the caboodlers to invest half an hour on a single review (that this collection part takes about One minute FYI) since the small business community is merely so hungry to become heard. It is a group that’s putting their livelihoods at stake, daily, to produce their business grow and 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 just coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release in another few weeks (SUPER excited to exhibit everybody) but simply all out interviewing, listening and studying under our core customers. I’ve found out that simply because your products is free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products have to solve real life trouble for real life people. This full release I do think encompasses that mantra. We’re going to share it soon.

Even as grow all of us everyone has a role to experience 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 who you are pressurized. Our company (especially the founders) do whatever needs doing to maneuver the ball forward. People ask about what sort of transition from CRE to Startup in tech will go, as long as they make the leap too using their idea? I smile and have this: Is it possible to handle the stress with this deadline, another sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and much much more. When you choose to go for it and create something which matters you feel far more responsible. How? Well ideas are pretty much worth nothing, or so I’ve learned 😉 It’s all inside the execution along with the team…along with the culture. A strong 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 accountable for cultivating the minds themselves. When you begin a business (from a perception) you’re accountable for the investors, (usually your pals and families hard-earned money), you’re accountable for your people, their efforts and their goals, you’re accountable for your business’s growth, and moving the vision forward daily…but many of all you’re accountable for yourself. There’s no automatic paycheck or salary to obtain to get up and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something have love for. I assume that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate the amount arrange it is always to start up a business, never underestimate how difficult at times may be, the stress is from the charts along with the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you simply have love for what you’re doing, if you think in your mission along with your culture along with your team? Here is the best damn thing you’ll do the whole life.

No person seriously knows where our path may lead. Startups inside their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and therefore are just starting to test them within a live environment, time, our efforts along with the market will dictate a percentage of our own success. I understand this, our culture will dictate the way you lead and how we interact as people…that is certainly something I’m happy with.
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I might never knock those that don’t desire to start their unique business, it’s not even close to simple and easy , oftentimes personal considerations don’t so it can have. If you do? Confer with your customers, listen and discover. They’re going to let you know what they really want to find out and enhance your thinking, in each and every part of your products. You will find a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and that we have confidence in that. I understand what we’re doing at Tenavox is the most rewarding professional experience of my life, and that’s worth every bit of the stress, risk and keenness we’re pouring into it daily. It’s funny, if we commenced I wasn’t sure the best way to border the pain sensation points of the private business owner…Now? We understand them because we live them. And a wise someone once said, “there’s no replacement for experience.”

There was an excellent team building last week in Austin too! Because of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!

Stay tuned for the full release in two to three weeks and many thanks for reading my ramblings keep in mind.

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

Have something to state meantime? Hit me up on LinkedIn or [email protected]