Cyrus Massoumi, ZocDoc Scaling New Heights

CHIEF TALK

BUSINESS LEADERS share KEY LESSONS THEY’VE LEARNED

INTERVIEWS BY LEE LUSARDI CONNOR

CYRUS MASSOUMI, ZOCDOC

SCALING NEW HEIGHTS

ZocDoc was founded in 2007 with the mission of tapping the “hidden supply” of health care in the United States— appointments that are cancelled at the last minute. The online service, free to patients, allows these slots to be refi lled promptly. The result: a better use of time for both doctors and patients, with appointments booked within 24 to 72 hours, on average, compared to the typical average wait time of 18.5 days. Practically since day one, ZocDoc has been in hyper–growth mode, adding medical specialties and health care systems, expanding to new locations, and debuting additional features and services. Today, it covers 40 percent of the population in 2,000 cities and towns, and 5 million patients log on each month. Recently, the company announced plans to bring its service to every state in the contiguous United States by the end of 2014. Cofounder and CEO Cyrus Massoumi talked about his strategies for maintaining high standards while growing fast.

Focus Drives the Future

Over the past year we’ve hit an interesting milestone, which is that we passed 500 employees. And just as we did a few years back when we hit 100 employees, we took time to refl ect on how we manage the business at this stage of growth.

If you don’t have the right process in place, you’re not going to be able to focus 500 people on the highest and best need for the business. What if I had a magical power and could pause time and sit back and talk with every employee about what he or she could do in a specifi c area to move the needle for the company? Is there a way to replicate that experience in the absence of that superpower?

What we came up with is MONSTER goals. The acronym stands for Measurable, Optimistic, Noble, Specifi c, Time-Bound, Executable, and Relevant. Each person in our company is assigned to a team, and each team sets one to three quarterly goals. For example, it could be rolling out a new product to X number of patients by the end of the quarter. Whatever it is, the team puts a stake in the ground. Then we make sure resources within the company, such as technical support, are aligned to help fulfi ll the goal.

And this is literally how we’re running the company. When I meet with a team, I discuss MONSTER goals, when I’m talking with top management we discuss MONSTER goals. It’s a very important focusing mechanism for the entire company.

Technology Adoption Proceeds from a Win-Win

Health care is the largest sector of the global economy, yet it’s so fragmented, with 1,400 different technology systems used by doctors to manage their offi ces and calendars. Some people say doctors don’t like to adopt technology, but that’s not true! Doctors are very smart and have specifi c ways in which they want to manage their professional lives, so they choose technologies based on that.

It’s super important that we communicate to doctors that everyone benefi ts from our product. Patients like us because they get better access to doctors. Doctors like us because they get more optimal utilization of their time. Employers like

We just want to solve patient problems.

—CYRUS MASSOUMI