When i sit within an AirBnb I rented to the month of August (using a failing AC within the Texas Summer) I thought it could be a fun time to do a mental check of start-up life and the transition so far. Always beneficial when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown we significantly the business enterprise side is starting to feel “normal.” If that’s a possibility. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re from the “storming” phase now in the “normalization” phase individuals newbie. Now i use her Westpoint terminology during my common speech, confusing friends basic terms as Sitrep, bluf and of course MFIC. I’ll let her enlighten all of you about the definitions. If you ask me, 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 picking up bigtime. Great things.

In previous posts I’ve commented on product, CRE culture, investment and much more. On this page I want to focus on customers and the way to tune in to them.

When we first launched beta and began collecting feedback, the response was overwhelming from the initial users. “Change this,” “I don’t under this wording here,” “consider adding X,” “is there a atlas button for that?” (DOH!). To prospects with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s not new. I first, having only a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed since many people are ready to provide you with their benefit this mission. What’s the mission again? Help smaller businesses make smarter lease decisions.

Early on, I felt compelled to push the vast majority of our product and assumptions from the pure real estate property perspective. I knew we might strengthen the present tech in the marketplace, and we’re a commercial real estate property product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and all that good stuff but we provide a platform that’s CRE based to our users. Each of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped within the real estate property problem-solving mindset. As we grew together as a team, we became less just a few these assumptions and much more and much more engaged from the feedback from the users and people within the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not really a real estate property product, we’re a company 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 system with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s a crucial and foundational goal of ours to collect these experiences. However, I’m pleasantly surprised about the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, smaller businesses after they hear our mission, try out system and understand what we’re about. It’s quite normal for our caboodlers to pay half an hour on a single review (that the collection part takes about 60 seconds FYI) since the business community is definitely so hungry to get heard. It is a group that is putting their livelihoods at stake, every day, to generate 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 only coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release within the subsequent couple of weeks (SUPER excited to exhibit everybody) but merely plain interviewing, listening and gaining knowledge from our core customers. I’ve found out that just because your product is free of charge doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products need to solve real-world damage to real-world people. This full release I think encompasses that mantra. We’re going to share it soon.

As we grow we all of us have a task to try out right 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 would be best at exposing what you are under time limits. Our company (and especially the founders) do anything to move the ball forward. People question how the transition from CRE to Startup in tech will go, should they take the plunge too making use of their idea? I smile and ask this: Can you handle the strain on this deadline, the subsequent sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and much far more. When you decide go for it . and make something that matters you become a great deal more responsible. How? Well ideas are pretty much worth nothing, approximately I’ve learned 😉 It’s all within the execution and the team…and the culture. A strong culture will be the foundation to get a strong company.

Turning ideas into reality, together.

When you have a thought, it’s just yours, you’re only accountable for cultivating the thoughts themselves. When you start a company (from a thought) you’re accountable for the investors, (usually your mates 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 every day…most coming from all you’re accountable for yourself. There isn’t any automatic paycheck or salary to get you off the bed and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something have adoration for. I guess that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate the amount arrange it is always to begin a business, never underestimate how difficult at times may be, the strain is off the charts and the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you simply have adoration for what you’re doing, if you think inside your mission plus your culture plus your team? This can be the best damn thing you’ll do all of your life.

No-one seriously knows where our path may lead. Startups of their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and are just starting to test them in the live environment, time, our efforts and the market will dictate part individuals success. I know this, the west will dictate the way we lead and exactly how we interact as people…which is something I’m proud of.
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I’d personally never knock people that don’t want to start their particular business, it’s not even close to basic and oftentimes personal considerations don’t take. If you do? Confer with your customers, listen and discover. They are going to show you what they need to see and enhance your thinking, in each and every area of your product. There exists a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and now we have confidence in that. I understand what we’re doing right here at Tenavox is the most rewarding professional experience with my well being, and that’s worth equally from the stress, risk and fervour we’re pouring into it every day. It’s funny, when we commenced I wasn’t sure precisely how to frame this points from the small business operator…Now? We understand them because we live them. Along with a wise someone once said, “there’s no alternative to experience.”

We’d a fantastic team building last week in Austin too! Because of #escapegame #Galvanize and #Laketravis for hosting us!

Stay tuned for more for our full release within a couple weeks and many thanks for reading my ramblings remember.

Twenty-four hours a day 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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