Description
Today’s guest is democratizing home renovation with his company Kukun. You will discover how he used his own customer journey before building the product, a conversation about entrepreneurs vs non-entrepreneurs and a setback with an early co-founder leaving the company.
Raf Howery is the Founder and CEO at KUKUN.
Show Notes
Using His Own Customer Journey Before Building the Product
Raf is a technology executive by training but he had always loved architecture so flips home as a hobby. On his 5th property, he recognized that he can do a lot of things in his head and his ideas were easy to explain but there was no single source for it. He had also noticed that a lot of folks are afraid of remodeling as it is an opaque process and there seems to be a huge gap of what an individual can do and what TV can show you. So the first problem that Raf wanted to solve is the demystification of the whole process to take away all the hesitations, remove the cumbersome steps out of the equation and get people to be in the know. People feel that getting a contractor will get them into the commitment so prior to that, he wants people to make clear decisions before getting into this phase. How much it will cost, who are the right people who can do it, what are the pitfalls, what are the rewards – these should be within your fingertips before you make a decision.
A Setback From a Departure of a Co-Founder
Since Raf had more background on enterprise software and not consumer, he needed someone who understood how to build customer experience. He met with someone and it worked out in the beginning, but along the way, it became hard for that person to continue both for family and professional reasons. He was used to the corporate comfort, which Raf understood, and combined with family pressure, it removed his entrepreneur spirit away. It was a difficult stage and they lost 8 months to a year as they had to re do things since he was the product manager. The education that Raf had to go through was rough due to this and he learned to be careful in choosing co-founders. No matter their skills, make sure that they have the same level of tolerance and commitment as you do because if they don’t, you will probably be left alone to carry the whole thing.
Show Mention
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