Because i sit here in an AirBnb I rented for that month of August (using a failing AC in the Texas Summer) I believed it could be fun to execute a mental check of start-up life as well as the transition thus far. Advantageous when you’re sweating from sitting 🙂 Having grown our company significantly the business side of things is starting to feel “normal.” If that’s a possibility. My co-founder Marissa would say we’re out of the “storming” phase now to the “normalization” phase of our own 1st year. I now use her Westpoint terminology inside my common speech, confusing friends basic terms as Sitrep, bluf as well as MFIC. I’ll let her enlighten you all about the definitions. To me, normalizing the team is helping us show we have momentum, synergy and our folks (and internal technology) are all aligned as well as the pace is picking up bigtime. Nothing but good things.

In the past posts I’ve commented on product development, CRE culture, investment plus more. On this page I want to concentrate on customers and ways to tune in to them.

Once we first launched beta and commenced 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 roadmap button for that?” (DOH!). To people with tech startup experience I’m sure that’s nothing new. I for starters, having just a humble CRE broker’s background, was quite surprised/impressed since many people are ready to offer you their assistance with this mission. What’s the mission again? Help smaller businesses make better lease decisions.

In the beginning, I felt compelled to push the vast majority of our product development and assumptions from your pure property perspective. I knew we could strengthen the prevailing tech in the industry, and we’re an industrial property product, right? Sure, we’re free and anonymous and all a good stuff but our company offers a platform that is CRE based to our users. Each of our core assumptions and product architecture/functions were steeped in the property problem-solving mindset. Once we grew together together, we became less dependent on these assumptions plus more plus more engaged by the feedback from the users and people in the field. This assumption quickly changed, we’re not simply a property product, we’re a company product. How did find 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 the working platform with real, verified feedback from business decision makers. It’s an important and foundational objective of ours to recover these experiences. However, I’m amazed at the response we’re getting from retailers, tenants, smaller businesses after they hear our mission, check out the working platform and determine what we’re all about. It’s not uncommon for our caboodlers to pay half an hour one review (that your collection part takes about One minute FYI) for the reason that small business community is definitely so hungry being heard. It is a group that is putting their livelihoods on the line, every single day, to generate 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 just coding/testing/building/caboodling and trending hard towards our full release here in the following month or so (SUPER excited to demonstrate everybody) but merely all out interviewing, listening and gaining knowledge through our core customers. I’ve found that even though your products is free doesn’t mean it automatically drops some inherent barrier to entry. Products have to solve real-world problems for real-world people. This full release I believe encompasses that mantra. We’re going to share it soon.

Once we grow our company we all have a job to try out 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 your identiity under pressure. We (and also the founders) do whatever needs doing to maneuver the ball forward. People inquire about what sort of transition from CRE to Startup in tech will go, should they take the plunge too using their idea? I smile and enquire of this: Are you able to handle the stress of this deadline, the following sprint, sales projections, recruiting, feedback, testing, adjustments, operations, payroll and far a lot more. When you elect go for it . and make a thing that matters you then become a great deal more responsible. How? Well ideas are basically worth nothing, approximately I’ve learned 😉 It’s all in the execution as well as the team…as well as the culture. A solid culture is the foundation to get a strong company.

Turning ideas into reality, together.

For those who have a perception, it’s just yours, you’re only responsible for cultivating the ideas themselves. Once you start a company (from a perception) you’re responsible for the investors, (usually your mates 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…but many of most you’re responsible for yourself. There is absolutely no automatic paycheck or salary to get you off the bed and hitting that work-day hard, so pick something you have adoration for. I guess that’s what I’ve learned most. Never underestimate just how much push the button is usually to take up a business, never underestimate how difficult at times can be, the stress is off of the charts as well as the stakes couldn’t be higher. However if you have adoration for what you’re doing, if you believe within your mission along with your culture along with your team? This is actually the best damn thing you’ll do the whole life.

Nobody seriously knows where our path may lead. Startups of their very natures are risky ventures. We’ve made educated assumptions and are just beginning to test them inside a live environment, time, our efforts as well as the market will dictate part of our own success. I know this, our culture will dictate how you lead and how we come together as people…which is something I’m pleased with.
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I’d personally never knock those that don’t wish to start their unique business, it’s far from simple and oftentimes personal considerations don’t so it can gain. If you undertake? Talk to your customers, listen and learn. They are going to let you know what they desire to determine and increase your thinking, in every single area of your products. We have a new mantra now, “Built for Tenants, with Tenants,” and we rely on that. I know what we’re doing at Tenavox is the most rewarding professional experience of my life, and that’s worth equally in the stress, risk and fervour we’re pouring with it every single day. It’s funny, once we commenced I wasn’t sure exactly how to border the pain points in the small business owner…Now? We know them because we live them. And a wise someone once said, “there’s no substitute for experience.”

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

Stay tuned for our full release here in two to three weeks and many thanks for reading my ramblings remember.

You can comment below or please take a run at some of the other articles I’ve written chronicling my transition from broker to co-founder.

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