Read the full interview here.
UC: What have been some of the hardest challenges that have turned into the greatest lessons in your entrepreneurial journey?
Jonathan: (laughs) There are a few. [in no particular order]
- Most of running a company is doing the simple, hard things
- Only great operators should be allowed to manage
- When you have the correct primitives, first principles thinking leads to useful frameworks… and answers that seem obvious in hindsight
- Pilot customers make or break a company. Choose deliberately
- Knowledge is knowing; wisdom is doing
UC: What’s unique about Ender’s team?
Jonathan: Our founding team moved from the coasts to Austin in 2019. We brought together a senior, motley crew who believed in our mission. We kept our bar high and slowly grew headcount over time. We’re now at ~30 [at the time of this interview] three years in, and everyone is still here. I remember talking to a real estate tech founder who bragged that when their company was 20 people, they were 19 sales people and 1 engineer. We were the opposite.
We wanted to make Ender a place we enjoy working where we personally respect everyone. I’m the last interviewer. One of the things we select for are people capable of arguing any side of a debate. Another is self awareness. We can go from being in hardcore work mode to joking to work mode in the same minute. Beyond that, having our entire junior team and members of our senior team in office has been great for mentorship and culture.
UC: How do you look at the next 5 years?
Jonathan: Our company’s goal is to be the operating system for real estate. This means being the source of truth where apps plug into and data flows through Ender. All of real estate is around a dozen horizontal workflows with various configurations. There’s a finite number of necessary configurations, but there will always be improvements and optimizations. Things can always be better. That’s what makes it fun.