Adi Bittan is the co-founder and CEO of OwnerListens, a company that connects brick and mortar businesses with their customers via SMS and instant messaging. They provide a location based, real-time platform that makes it easy and safe for businesses and customers to IM with each other. Instant messaging and SMS are most people’s preferred communications method yet you still can’t IM with most businesses like you can with friends, family and colleagues. That’s because businesses are not set up to handle text messaging at scale, especially not in real-time. OwnerListens provides the messaging, routing and escalation tools that enable businesses to do this.
OwnerListens has maintained a small and lean team of 5 full-time employees and three contractors since it’s inception in October 2011. Adi recently spoke with us about her experience starting and running a business.
The Start
How did you get started with your business?
In the summer of 2011, while researching a few startup ideas, I was also helping my friend Oren (Editor’s Note: Owner of Oren’s Hummus) who was starting his restaurant. I had worked in a brick and mortar business before but it was a long time ago. I was surprised at how many things have changed and how many did not.
The most important changes I noticed were related to the restaurant’s digital presence and how important online reviews were. I remembered walking around handing out flyers for my parents’ business as a kid. Flyers don’t cut it anymore. Customers discover and evaluate businesses online and increasingly on mobile. Google, review sites, social media and the restaurant’s website determine whether customers will come so it’s important to have a stellar online reputation. Yet, it’s really hard to maintain consistent levels of service in a fast moving, always-on place such as a restaurant. Every mistake will cost you.
At the time, the restaurant was new and it was extremely important to get feedback from customers. Oren wanted to know what was working and what wasn’t. He spoke with every customer that came in but it was really difficult to get people to open up and share feedback. Yet, we still sometimes discovered a negative review the next day, even while the restaurant was still in "beta" mode. It turned out customers didn’t want to speak up directly. Some were worried about retribution; others were simply uncomfortable with negative feedback; and a few were in a hurry. That’s when Oren realized there was an opportunity to create an easy way for customers and businesses to communicate. After trying an email and a phone number, we found that privacy is a concern for customers. Many customers are afraid their number or email will be used for marketing. That’s when we realized the mobile phone could solve all these problems. It’s both immediate and direct but can also be private and anonymous. That’s where the kernel for OwnerListens was born. After validating the idea with over 100 business owners of all types and from around the country, Oren and I became co-founders, incorporated Owner Listens Inc. and began to build a prototype.
How did you fund your business in the beginning? Have you taken on any additional funding since?
Oren put in the initial money which we used for the 18 months or so of operations. We then raised a seed round of $1.1 million from angels and early stage venture funds.
Running The Business
How did you learn to run your business?
I think drinking from a firehose is the best analogy for running a business. In my prior career, I was actually an attorney regulating businesses for the government so I heard a lot from business owners about their problems, but those were isolated stories. Back then, I did not fully appreciate how difficult their lives were and how the regulator was just one of hundreds of issues they have to deal with.
Luckily, I had some prior knowledge from my previous startup and having watched others at previous jobs, including working at our family business as a kid. Until I started running my own business, I didn’t realize how much I had learned by working with and observing others. My leadership experience as an officer in the IDF was a lot more applicable than I imagined and my MBA from Stanford was helpful as well because it made me comfortable with things like corporate finance, strategy and HR.
Where I needed to fill in gaps I was fortunate to have advisors and mentors I could turn to. It’s a great privilege to have experienced entrepreneurs that will take your call and provide solid advice.
I can’t truly say I’ve "learned to run my business" since the learning never really stops. Every time I figure something out and make progress, new challenges arise. It’s part of the fun and it requires keeping an open mind and a healthy curiosity for learning and development. I continue to draw on past experience, on good mentors and advisors and on logic and common sense.
What’s the biggest mistake for the first year?
The worst mistake I made was a personnel mistake. We hired a contractor for a trial period, after which we hoped he would become full-time. He had the credentials and we had spent a lot of time finding him. Unfortunately, he was not able to deliver under the pressures of a startup environment and we didn’t let him go soon enough. Early stage companies can’t afford the luxury of second chances. We lost a few months until we finally parted ways. Luckily, it was still within the trial period. Still, I wish I had done it sooner.
What’s the smartest thing you did for the first year?
I spoke to a lot of customers. Hundreds. I kept listening, validating and iterating. Since the world of brick and mortar is so diverse and fragmented it was very difficult to make sense of it all but if I hadn’t done that work, I don’t think we would’ve reach the great product we have today.
What’s the most rewarding thing about running your own business
Seeing our product at work and creating value for both sides of the equation: customers and businesses. We are providing a better way of doing things for both sides. That thought wows me every time I think about it. So many products out there are designed to give one side of the marketplace an advantage over the other, but we get to build a product that is a win-win for both sides: it provides customers with better service and helps businesses improve without turning negative feedback into a hindrance to success. When that actually happens, I couldn’t be happier.
Some examples from the last week:
- A restaurant winning a 14 person reservation by responding quickly to a customer on SMS.
- A restaurant avoiding a potential food safety issue after being alerted by a customer to a suspicious food item.
- An apparel store updating its staff training and taking disciplinary measures after learning employees were using foul language in front of customers.
- A supermarket immediately ordering an out-of-stock item after a customer alerted them she just bought the last 6 items and wanted 10 more.
- A customer finding a good solution for her elderly father’s meds delivery after texting several pharmacies. Imagine how long it would take if she had to call or how long she would wait for email responses.
- A nail salon learning one of its employees has bad breath but is otherwise great. That’s an easy to solve problem!
It goes on and on. There are so many examples! Whenever I have a few minutes I look through the messages flowing through the system and smile. We just made life easier for both a customer and a business.
What’s the most difficult/challenging thing about running your own business?
There’s so much to do and so many opportunities. The most difficult thing is prioritizing and allocating time appropriately. Existing leads, new leads, customer support, fundraising, hiring etc. It’s an endless list and it’s a constant struggle. I try to divide things up to urgent, important, and other. It helps.
What business owner or entrepreneur do you admire most?
That’s a hard one. There are so many inspiring business leaders out there. In the tech world there are the usual suspects so I’ll mention one from a completely non-tech background: Sarah Blakely. What a great example of pure hustle, ingenuity and never giving up.
What I’ve Learned
If you could go back to when you were starting your business, what advice would you give yourself?
There’s a saying that goes: The years pass by so quickly but the minutes pass slowly. That is to say that the short term makes you think you have plenty of time but then, before you know it, a month or a year has passed. My advice to myself would be to move even faster! Break things faster, change faster, react faster. Startups are an organization searching for a business model while fighting the clock (i.e. the amount of cash left in the bank). The faster you move, the more likely you are to beat the clock.
What do you wish you had known before you had started your business?
Sales. Almost every founder I know talks about this. Although I had over a decade of professional work experience prior to starting my business, I had never done sales.
Sales is really hard and it’s impossible to learn from a book or a blog. You have to pound the pavement (or the phones) and learn by doing. It’s painful and takes a ton of time. I wish I had learned sales on someone else’s dime rather than on my own company.
This article was originally written on October 21, 2014 and updated on July 25, 2016.
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