Scott and Jinesh chat with Dr Lior Tamir about his journey through dental. Lior shares key insights on running a dental practice through a business lens. He explains why he has taken the time to build out The Dental App practice management software that better suits the needs of practice owners and practicing dentists. He shines light on why the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) element of his software is game-changing when it comes to patient communication and patient follow-through on treatment. 1:26 Introducing Lior Tamir 13:43 Dental practice startup growth strategy 30:09 Dentistry viewed as hospitality 32:28 Dental practice software challenges 36:39 Birth of The Dental App 38:26 Importance of CRMs in dental 51:27 Launching with The Dental App…

Scott and Jinesh recap their Chicago Midwinter conference experiences, Scott gives Jinesh his flowers for the UptimeHealth recognition by Fast Company, and the duo recaps the ADA letter to the governor of Utah warning against removing fluoride from drinking water. 1:28 Chicago Midwinter conference recap 9:35 UptimeHealth nominated Most Innovative by Fast Company 14:11 ADA unhappy with Utah moving to ban fluoride from drinking water…

Scott and Jinesh chat in person with Trey Tepichin, founder of Cloud Dentistry. They discuss Trey's path to dentistry and powering through the early days of the company via 'manual automation'. Trey reflects on the ins and outs of his platform, his go to market strategy, and how marketplaces bring out the best (and worst!) of the population. 1:01 Introducing Trey Tepichin 6:46 Finding dentistry 9:28 Starting Cloud Dentistry 13:17 Go to market strategy 15:59 Impact of Covid on the business 19:19 Mechanics and use cases of the platform 28:37 Wild stories from marketplace interactions 30:50 Next steps for Cloud Dentistry…

Scott and Jinesh chat with Dr Khamir Patel and Dr Dmitry Burshteyn about SmartChair.AI, a company dedicated to measuring dental chair usage time. They discuss the origin and progress of the company, and reflect on chair usage time as possibly the most important driver of optimizing success of a dental practice. 1:46 Introducing Khamir and Dmitry 13:12 SmartChair.AI product overview 17:18 Progress to date 19:46 Product use cases 24:51 The co-founder relationship 29:07 Khamir's balancing act 31:54 Lessons learned 33:51 Go to market strategy 41:03 Surprising findings (the data doesn't lie) 49:33 Optimizing efficiency - seeing is believing…

Scott and Jinesh chat with Dr. Marko Vujicic, Chief Economist at the American Dental Association. They discuss Marko's role within the ADA and the work of the Health Policy Institute. The trio dive into oral health and public policy, and the challenges (and potential solutions!) to meaningfully increasing access to care in the US. 0:56 Introducing Dr. Marko Vujicic 3:47 Marko's pre-dental journey 8:12 The ADA's Health Policy Institute 12:55 Putting oral health on the map 16:55 Oral health and the new administration 21:39 Public policy and access to care 29:49 The dental insurance paradigm 38:20 Medical-dental integration 50:23 Marko solves the access to care problem…

Scott and Jinesh chat with Ophir Tanz, founder of Pearl, about all things dental AI. They discuss Ophir's background, why the AI opportunity in dental specifically makes sense, and get in the weeds on Pearl's philosophy and approach to tackling the challenge. Ophir shares his perspective on partnerships, integrations, the regulatory environment, go-to-market, and the future of Pearl. 1:28 Introducing Ophir Tanz 8:35 Why AI in dental made sense 12:24 Training data 16:34 Types of AI and benefits of AI (in dental) 22:58 Integrations and partnerships 30:39 Regulatory approvals 35:15 Going global 46:40 Pearl's future…

Scott and Jinesh chat with pediatric dentist Dr. Ashley Lerman about her journey founding and growing Firstgrin. Ashley shares insights on her go-to-market strategy and partnerships, as well as lots of advice for parents with young children. She breaks down the importance of early dental visits, and the cost of delaying a child's first trip to the dentist. 0:44 Introducing Ahsley Lerman 6:20 Launching Firstgrin 17:10 Go-to-market strategy 24:23 Growth and partnerships 28:54 Fluoride recommendations 33:16 Advice from a pediatric dentist 39:05 Cost of delaying a child's dental care 41:07 Dental referrals and founder support…

Scott and Jinesh discuss some of the highlights of the letter the ADA sent to President Donald Trump just before he took office for his second term. 3:50 Introducing ADA letter to Trump 6:57 Opioid monitoring, Fluoride, and Government Subsidized Dental Coverage 11:59 Medical-dental integration, practice technologies 16:17 Education and Defense 20:04 Environment Protection 22:37 Flex-spending 26:29 Rescinding expansion of nondiscrimination protections…

Scott and Jinesh chat about the Yankee Dental Conference and recap the recent Dental Post survey. They also discuss the latest journal article assessing efficacy of various pain relievers, and wrap up with a discussion about the Dental Economics article about AI use in the dental world. 1:27 Jinesh preps for Yankee Dental Conference 5:24 Dental Post survey results 18:37 Pain relievers study 28:19 AI report in Dental Economics…

Scott and Jinesh chat with Eric Shirley, current President of Keystone Industries and former President of Patterson. Eric shares his personal experience running both manufacturers and distributors in the dental space, and the dynamics between those two parties. Eric also weighs in on the Patterson acquisition, and opines on the impact it may have on the dental industry as a whole. 2:44 Introducing Eric Shirley 6:16 How Eric ended up in dental 11:36 Buy/Get deals in dental 14:42 The dynamic between manufacturers and distributors 27:40 Eric's thoughts on the Patterson deal 39:49 Equipment manufacturing and service 50:34 Printing the future at Keystone Industries 59:40 Tariffs and Made in the USA…

Recorded during holiday season 2024, Scott and Jinesh chat about the seasonality of selling to dentists, and about how to manage team coverage over the holidays. They also discuss the right timing for company expansion internationally and into other healthcare verticals, and reflect on fundraise timing and luck. 2:46 Seasonality of selling to dentists 14:07 Coordinating team schedules 16:10 Timing for a startup's market and/or geographic expansion 25:08 TAM, SAM, and SOM 28:07 Fundraising timing and cadence…

Scott and Jinesh discuss the recent ADA announcement that they have made an investment into the company Pearl via their Innovation Advisory committee. They chat about the optics of the ADA making select investments, and they dissect key details included in the publicly available press releases.

Scott and Jinesh react to the news of Patterson (PDCO) entering into a definitive agreement to be acquired and taken private. They discuss the terms of the deal itself, speculate on where a competing offer might come from, and opine on what this means for the dental industry moving forward.

Scott and Jinesh chat about RFK Jr.'s war on fluoride, the recent negative mainstream press around full-arch treatment, and Dentsply closing its recently acquired BYTE orthodontic line. 3:36 RFK Jr. and fluoride 16:30 Negative press for full-arch treatment 31:18 Dentsply closes down BYTE

In this episode Scott and Jinesh chat with JW Oliver Junior, founder of ZimWorkX and Support DDS. They discuss JW's entrepreneurial journey up to and through the dental world, and take a deep dive into the world of remote support staff for dental practices. They cover topics including unit economics of outsourcing staff, team culture, impact of COVID on hiring remote staff, customer profiles, and opine on the future of AI on remote workers. 1:52 Introductions 5:15 JW's journey through dental to SupportDDS 12:25 Breadth and depth of SupportDDS 15:54 Entrepreneurial instinct 18:28 Unit economics of support staff 23:08 Global team culture and values 30:55 Impact of COVID on remote roles 33:04 JW's journey before dental 42:50 SupportDDS customer profiles 45:34 Anticipating AI 50:59 Traveling and working globally…