How Startups Solve The Biggest Problems Facing Dentists Today

Travis Rodgers

One concept, one person, one failure, or one piece of information can change someone’s life and those of others. It could save an entrepreneur’s savings, business, or relationship. That happened to me five years ago. I was 15 years into building software and technology in the dental industry when I was introduced to a Stanford professor named Steve Blank. He taught me the concept of “Customer Discovery.” I was launching new products into the dental industry, and several didn’t take off as expected, and I was frustrated.

It was 2019, and I had spent many years developing the industry’s first referral product, then called RecordLinc and now called OneClick Referral. To bootstrap my company, I spun out my integrations, marketing services, and white-labeled modules for others looking to start a software company. Some were successful, but others failed, and I couldn’t figure out why. I had prior success with a few big companies and was a part of selling several startups. I had the background, education, drive, and the ultimate entrepreneurial spirit, but something was missing. I worked hard but felt like a duck treading water and going nowhere. People told me what I was building was great, but no one was paying for it, which is the test of whether a product is a success.

I was missing one key thing and didn’t figure it out until it was almost too late. Most of my dental friends told me it was my lack of focus, but that wasn’t the issue. I WAS focused. I wanted to be the first to build an electronic referral with built-in online scheduling and a patient file-sharing app, and I did. You can read more about that story in my Fall 2022 article, “Top 10 Reasons Why Dental Software Startup Companies Fail.”

Today, I advise dental startup company founders through my work at Dental Venture Capital by DrDDS. I teach founders to put their entrepreneur’s ego aside and look at the data. Are you building “The Right It”? Are you building something that YOU want or something that dentists need? Is the problem you are solving painful enough that dental teams will be willing to change? Do you have the story to tell to get them emotionally involved? Is there enough financial benefit for dental practices to change what they are doing today?

Five years ago, I implemented the “customer discovery process.” This process, made famous by the book The Lean Startup, includes collecting data from many potential users of the product you hope to develop. Next is to create a hypothesis or minimal product, test the problem you are solving, and then the solution you have built. The final step is to re-evaluate the data, survey, and pivot. The faster you pivot and the more accurate the data you collect, the better the product you build or the sooner you walk away. A few years ago, we added an AI tool to go deeper into evaluating personality types. We looked at over five thousand dentists and determined that most are of the conscientious personality types, C on the DISC assessment. You can read more about that in my Spring 2022 article, “Succeeding With Implementing Change In Your Dental Practice.”

Customer discovery may seem simple and intuitive, but it is more complex, and I am oversimplifying it for this article. Don’t take this for granted. If you are in a dental practice, you likely already know the significant issues facing dentistry today. If you want to build something to solve that problem, it takes a much different skill set. Communicating precisely what to make requires a clear blueprint. Too often, entrepreneurs come to me and tell me what they want to develop, but they fall short of providing the level of detail of the problem or the solution to create the right plan. The more planning you do at the beginning, the better product you will build, and the less money you will spend building it. I compare this to building a house. The more you plan, the better the result.

This is now my fifth year of doing an annual customer discovery survey. When we first surveyed in 2019, the number one issue was communication, but it changed during COVID-19 and has remained the same over the past three years. Here are the three significant areas of pain for dental offices:

1. Staffing

2. Insurance

3. Communication

Some of you will stop reading here and say, “I know that.” If you only look at these results or your results from the surface view, you will likely fail to find the true solution you are looking for. It isn’t the first layer of customer discovery questions that matters. It is when you go deeper into your questions and don’t bias the survey results on what you want them to say. When you listen deeply and with many people and roles, you will find the answers you seek.

The results from our deeper questioning are proprietary to the customers we work with, so I can’t go deeper here, but I will share a few success stories of the results for startups following this process:

Envodent is a new cloud-based practice management system quickly gaining market share from larger systems because the company has listened to and adapted to its customers.

ToothPillow found an unmet need to help children who need airway management solutions.

Effex discovered that dental practices needed an easier way to track OSHA and HIPAA compliance in real-time.

LuciDent surveyed patients and found that patients wanted improved communication with their dentist.

Scout Dental found that dental practices want a low-cost and easy-to-use analytics platform.

Odne discovered that endodontists and patients want a better, non-toxic solution for root canals.

OneClick Referral found that the referral problem is solved by making it easy for GPs to send referrals and that the problem is more significant for internal referrals for DSOs.

Woods Dental has found that dental offices want to get paid by insurance faster and easier.

Whether you are building a dental product, a house, or a relationship, following the customer discovery process will help you succeed. Gather the data, make decisions based on math instead of emotion, plan, fail early, pivot often, and find mentors, coaches, and advisors who can help you.

Travis Rodgers specializes in technology, strategy, fundraising, and go-to-market strategies for dental startup companies.

Travis was the first to develop an electronic referral tool, online scheduling, and a patient file-sharing app in the dental industry. He has created 27 different dental software programs, launched 7 companies, and helped bring hundreds of dental companies and products to market over the past 20 years. Travis grew up in Silicon Valley and is a lifetime entrepreneur. Travis runs the Dental Venture Capital program at the venture studio, DrDDS Innovations.