It is very easy to get excited about a new idea but it is always essential to take a step back and see the bigger picture. Gaven Henry was able to validate his idea, solidify his business model and get feedback from mentors through the JFDI Discover program, writes David Ongchoco
JFDI Discover is our 21-day online pre-accelerator course that runs every month. JFDI Discover teaches founders how to apply and get results from powerful startup tools such as the Lean Canvas, Pirate Metrics and OKR (Objectives & Key Results).
We spoke to Gaven Henry, founder of Property Trakker Pte Ltd – creators of Invested Interest, a web-based property management tool. Gaven took part in the January Discover program and shared what he learned in the 21 days.
Tell us about your startup and team
Invested Interest is a cloud-hosted solution that stores all your important information and documents relevant to your property. The whole goal of Invested Interest is to help homeowners and property owners to manage everything about their property. The idea is to be able to track everything about your loans, insurance, repairs, contracts and any income you earn as well and all the expenses associated with invested properties.
At the moment, the team is myself, and one part time developer. It’s taken about a year to get to this point of going live.
Why did you start this business?
Back in 2007, I bought a house in Singapore and rented it out as an investment and completely neglected it. We just left it with a property manager in Australia. And every year, we be scrambling to find out when the insurance was due, when we were suppose to renew it, when our lease was expiring, until when our tenants were staying.
Being remote, and having a day job made it really hard to stay on top of everything. I got really sick of doing this especially if I had to repair something or if I had maintenance so I started using an excel file but even that started to get really tedious.
I didn’t initially build this because I thought people would want something like this. I was trying to solve a problem I faced. There were no competitors out there that I could find that did this so I decided to try and build it myself. Then I realized that if this could solve my problem, surely there are other people who need this as well.
How did you find out about JFDI Discover?
Leo tech has worked with a JFDI, investing in OurHeatlhMate. So when I first heard about it, I read more about JFDI and always kept an eye on what was going on.
When I saw the Discover program, I thought that that’s probably a really good fit for me because I wanted to take a step back and kind of take a look at my idea and think about what I have to do before I put it out live and start bringing it out to market.
What were some of the challenges you faced before joining Discover?
I was kind of sitting on my idea and saying that I would just add this and this before it goes live. There were so many different features I was thinking about adding but wasn’t sure how relevant they would be. I needed to give myself a kick, take a step back and just do it.
How did JFDI Discover help your startup?
If you look at the tools and programs, the folks at JFDI really push you to talk to your users and see what your users like rather than saying ‘I think they may like this’.
I had a whole list of features but this helped me reorganize my priorities on what the biggest impact would be for our users. The other thing Discover helped me with is just getting my product out there, getting the MVP live, getting feedback and improving it.
What is the one thing you learnt or did at JFDI Discover that you think other founders should know too?
I learned that it is really good to take a step back and think about how I am actually going to make money of this and what it is going to cost me. Discovermade me ask myself, ‘Am I just doing this as a hobby project or side project?’ It really helps you work out what you’re doing, where you’re going, where your revenue is coming from, and if your idea is really valid.
Who would you recommend to JFDI Discover?
If you have a really good idea and you’re not sure how to get started with it, Discover might be good for you. However, you may want to do some more research first and start building a prototype of your application. You probably should have a bit more of an idea to get the most out of the program.
So I think if you go in with a prototype of your idea then sharing that and getting feedback from the Discover mentors can really help you validate your idea. This is where you benefit to refine your ideas and take a step back. You also get to learn from people who have experience starting their own startup.
Where is your team planning to go from here?
Three weeks ago, I pitched to the team at LeoTech, and asked for help with development and business resources. Fortunately, Leotech agreed to invest. They bought in some stake and they’re providing me with development, business and marketing resources.
In the next few months, we plan to build the system that will give homeowners the ability to transfer house records from one owner to the next. Our CEOs always looks for business ideas that have a good plan and viable revenue model. So for me, getting an investment from LeoTech was a vote of confidence as well. This really gave me the kick to keep going.
Thinking of starting your own business? JFDI Discover will help you find out if you really want to be an entrepreneur. It will reveal if your team is aligned to deliver results. And it will show you how to solve a real problem for customers who are willing to pay thus moving closer to a “problem-solution fit”.
David Ongchoco is a content marketing intern for JFDI Asia. He currently studies at the University of Pennsylvania and runs an international nonprofit called YouthHack, which has a goal of helping students learn more about startups, technology and entrepreneurship. He also contributes for top publications like the Huffington Post, Technical.ly Philly and the Philippine Daily Inquirer.