Full Transcript
Dr James:
Fans of the Dennis who Invest podcast. If you feel like there was one particular episode in the back catalog in the anthology of Dennis who Invest podcast episodes that really, really, really was massively valuable to you, feel free to share that with a fellow dental colleague who’s in a similar position, so their understanding of finance can be elevated and they can hit the next level of financial success in their life. Also, as well as that, if you could take two seconds to rate and review this podcast, it would mean the world. To me, what that would mean is that it drives this podcast further in terms of reach so that more dentists across the world can be able to benefit from the knowledge contained therein. Welcome.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to the Dennis who Invest podcast.
Dr James:
And we’ll let everybody in as well. Welcome everybody, good evening and welcome to the inaugural Dennis who Invest shark tank. We are so, so, so excited to get the delegates up here tonight to talk about their businesses and how they’re going to make the biggest impact they possibly can in dentistry. And we have collected tonight, we’ve assembled tonight in front of us some of the brightest, youngest, hottest prospects in the sphere of tech within UK dentistry and we’re so looking forward to hearing about their businesses tonight and, as well as that, an all-star cast of the sharks themselves. The sharks who are going to be breaking down, analyzing and understanding whether or not these businesses are indeed going to sink or swim. Let’s go ahead and jump straight in with introing some of the sharks. I am, of course, james Martin. I run Dennis who Invest. I created Dennis who Invest about two years ago. I’ve since seen that grow into a business that sustains me and I am the host of the evening. For those who don’t know me, the other three sharks I have in front of me I’m going to pick out Hannah so that Hannah can do a little bit of an intro for those in the audience who don’t know her.
Speaker 3:
Hello everyone. James, thank you for having me. I am Hannah. I am one of the co-founders. I’m the CEO of a company called Caroku. We create technology for dentists to streamline record keeping so that, as a dentist, you can focus on doing what you’re trained to do, which is care for patients. Provide care, yeah, and it’s good to be here.
Dr James:
Awesome. And yeah, check out Caroku for anybody who hasn’t done already. Systemized notes that keep you correct. Keep you right as a dentist, because it’s so hard to flip and forget the one million and a half things you have to write down when you’re trying to quickly jot them between your patients.
Speaker 2:
Awesome.
Dr James:
Hannah, Thank you for that intro. Next up we have Payment of Enlightened Smiles.
Speaker 4:
Hi everyone. I’m Payment from Enlighten. We manufacture a high-end teeth whitening product. We started 20 years ago. We have 50 employees. We also do a composite course which is called Mini Smile Makeover, and I’m co-host of a podcast called Dental Leaders’ Podcast.
Dr James:
Awesome, thank you. So much Payment and, of course, last but not least, Mamoud.
Speaker 2:
Hi everyone, great to be here. James, thank you very much for the invite. So my name is Mamoud. I’m the founder of the Reganite Academy. I’m a graduate in 2003, but I actually left a profession in 2018. And so since then, I have launched and I run a Reganite Academy, which is a coaching academy, at the moment mainly for dentists want to be able to grow, make more money and to have a great life. So that’s what we do at the moment. We’re in about a fourth year. Right now. We’re turning over about $3 million a year, having a great time enjoying more than dentistry. So there we go. Thank you, james.
Dr James:
Thank you so much. So, yes, looking forward to see the delegates tonight and their companies and how they plan to grow them and make a greater impact. And, obviously, the thing about Shark Tank and the thing about Dentistry Invest Shark Tank is that, of course, we’re focusing within the dental sphere because, as we know, there’s lots of companies inside the dental sphere that can’t get funded. And let’s all remember the grand prize, the grand prize of the evening, which is the opportunity to pitch your company to none other than the father of Mark Zuckerberg, facebook, the platform that we’re currently speaking on, and Zuckerberg is known for his prowess in the investment world. That is no mean prize. What a huge flipping opportunity, and we’re super excited to award that to one of the contestants this evening. So, without further ado, let’s go ahead and bring on the first contestant to enter the Shark Tank. I see you on my screen, sunny. Sunny, feel free to unmute yourself and tell us a little bit more about who you are, what your business is and what you’d like to gain from some sort of venture capital partnership.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, hello James. Thanks for having me. Hello guys, thought I’d start off bringing my little mascot on. Yeah.
Dr James:
Oh I like that. I like that.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, that’s good, that’s good. So, yeah, I’m Sunny and I’m probably the most unlikely person to be standing in front of you. I failed my finals in uni, had to stay another six months to reset. I struggled through three associate positions after VT and I tried to leave dentistry in 2017 in hopes of becoming a professional Bitcoin trader, and that didn’t really work out so well because I made 250k really quickly. And then in 2018, I lost the all because I did not. I was doing. And then back to the drudgery. I went and, yeah, dentistry was pretty hard. At that point as well, I was pretty, pretty upset about it. It’s how it goes. And I tried and failed multiple businesses again and they didn’t really work out. But lots of lessons on the way and then I had a little bit of a formative experience in that. On the internet, I found the greater curve matrix, so I didn’t know that that was the breakthrough for me, but it certainly was. And in 2020, after using it for a couple of years, really sort of held my dentistry. I was enjoying it more. 2020, I heard the inventor, dr Brown, on a podcast and he was talking about similar problems to me and I reached out to him, became pals. He started mentoring me in 2020. And last year, after really sort of progressing in my career after his help, I said to him look, we’ve got a teacher. And he was on the same page. And then Dray diet restore of excellence was born. So, in terms of what we do, so, dray Composite Limited is the company and it provides the official education and UK distribution for the great curve Diet. Restore of excellence is the official great curve masterclass in, comprised of an online video series and a one day hands on program. We also have a host of more advanced offerings centered around the great curve system, but we show we show dentists a predictable, reproducible, smooth way of working for any diet restore situation, from basic to the most demanding. And you know, it changed my life to such a point that it was a little bit secret of mine, but now it makes the most sense to share it with the world and all of our colleagues and let them share the unique benefits that the great curve can give them. And in terms of why it sort of gives us meaning, or gives me meaning, really is because I believe in the transformative power of Dray and the great curve and I’ve seen it with my own eyes, in our own delegates, when the penny drops with them during the training, it’s a crisis feeling, Even more so when they’re backing their surgeries on a Monday and then come lunchtime they’re sending cases of their wins immediately. You know, sometimes better work than my own, so it’s pretty fulfilling. In that regard, and from a really macro view, you know our missions to eliminate accidental harm we can cause our patients and our careers during routine restorative dentistry. So you know, namely overhangs, open contacts, voids, all of which can damage our patient’s self and can lead to avoid abortal litigation. And then patients often endure like a downward spiral. They’ll have a restoration place a couple of years later. It needs to be redone, you know. Then it can lead to an endo, an extraction implant, and then we’re puzzled why they don’t take the £2,500 implant option, right? Because then we’re telling them, oh, you’ve had too much sugar. But then they think of all the other restorations they have and they don’t have the same problems. So that’s kind of like a bit of a bit of a dissonance for them. And then, but our program, you know it helps. It helps NHS dentists, private dentists, community, new graduates, experienced guys. You know there’s any direct restorative problem you can think of, we can really help. And we also know that, you know, the majority dentists do not practice dentistry under Robert Down, right, especially not restorative dentistry under Robert Down. But you know, should that mean that only patients who are receiving dentists who treat under Robert Down should get, you know, good, well-bonded restorations? We don’t think so. So we have a method that allows for good, well-bonded restorations, with or without Robert Down, you know. So it doesn’t really exclude anybody.
Dr James:
Awesome, and why do you believe that greater curve is better than the mythologies that we do have in the market? What specific features make it better clinically?
Speaker 5:
Well, clinically, I mean, the interesting part about this system is that it restores any situation, right. So we don’t need something for diastomart and something for this sort of apple sevens and something different for class 5s. It’s one system that can do it all class 2, 3, 4, 5, veneer onlay, direct composite crown, you name it, it can solve it. And then in terms of problems, you know it can nail them all sub-gingible black triangles, you know, wide posterior embrasures, I mean literally, you name it, we can really really quite solve it. So it’s a one-stop solution in that regard, clinically, but also in terms of, you know, stocking for the practice. It’s a lot easier, right. You just have one system. You don’t have to have all these working parts. It’s affordable to be used on the NHS or private or community, it doesn’t really matter. You know we don’t. It’s not prohibitive for anybody to use.
Dr James:
That’s cool. What are the other sharks thinking? I’m curious.
Speaker 3:
But I ask a question on that. You just said that you know it’s, it’s it’s affordable. What is the pricing of both? You said that you’ve got UK distribution but also courses, so what are the? What’s the pricing of courses and the product, if I’ve understood correctly?
Speaker 5:
Sure, yeah, you have. Thanks for that question. So the course at the moment is our early support price of 997. And that includes everything right. So that includes a greater curve starter kit, which retails for £250 in the UK. That includes the reusable retainer arms, so we don’t have plastic parts that are always thrown away. And that last thing for donkeys I’ve used mine since 2018, no dramas, and it has enough for 100 cases as well. So, on average, the standard, the standard matrix that you’re going to use for majority of your cases, comes in at 76 pp for use. And then the fancier ones that you’re going to be using, you know, for private situations where you really want to close black triangles and all the rest of it, coming at 160 on the upper end, but 76 pp for your day to day bread and butter guy. And just to add to that, you know, our view is, you know, within, you know, by 2023, we do want to make our course 1497 because of the tremendous value that we know it gives in that day. But we also are working on an online iteration as well. So for delegates who, for example because there’s a few ways that we do this, we can have them come to like the B2C option is. They come to our course, attend it as similar to MSM. Then we can also go into practice and deliver it for them in practice. You also practice and book us and then we can train their team and then finally we have it where, after perhaps we’ve done a lunch, and then these guys are really keen to get it. What we can do is send the kits out and then they get the online video series included and then I’ll do like about 90 minute zoom training hands off, but just to get them up to speed and what to do. Simply because you know I could get the best out of this system until Dr Brown really took me under his wings, so to speak, and now we’re sharing his framework.
Speaker 3:
Another question on that, which is what’s your traction so far, like how many delegates have you had on the courses? How many units have you sold?
Speaker 5:
So we’ve had two B2C versions, so two actual formal courses. We’ve got another one coming up in October and then we’ve done two practice trainings for two associates each, and the minimum we’ve kind of got in terms of reviews is like 4.5 out of 5 stars, you know, and everybody’s pretty pumped right. So we know what it can do, we know that it does what it says on the tin In terms of unit sold. At the moment we’re not just selling direct to the market. So those are our offerings at present. We will prepare to sell direct to the market, but that’s probably in around 18 months or so. Right now, to focus from making this transition from the states to the UK really is on getting B2C options for guys who want to get a hands-on framework in totality, and then obviously for practices and groups because we’re speaking to a handful of groups as well and you know who want to have consistent dentistry across the board and there’s lots of benefits for the practices as well. And then finally, obviously for the guys who don’t want to spare a day, then literally all I need is 90 minutes. They get the online theory, they get CPD credits and all the rest of it.
Speaker 3:
Hopefully they’ll answer that I feel like sorry. I’m like really hugging all the questions. Formal settlement I promise I will. I will start hugging. But what are you raising money for? If you want VC funding, what would you do with the money?
Speaker 5:
Ultimately, we don’t have problems in terms of development products already developed, the framework’s already there. It’s ready to serve. What we would need help with is really just gaining that exposure, getting that traction, because we can do this organically and slowly and there are many courses that have done that. But you know, we really think that this is just something that’s ready to go. You know that it doesn’t really require much else except for just getting into the people.
Dr James:
Real quick guys. I put together a special report for Dentist entitled the Seven Costs and Potentially Disasters Mistakes the Dentist may whenever it comes to their finances. Most of the time, dentist are going through these issues and they don’t even necessarily realise that they’re happening until they have their eyes opened, and that is the purpose of this report. You can go ahead and receive your free report by heading on over to, or, alternatively, you can download it using the link in the description. This report details the seven most common issues. However, most importantly, it also shows you how to fix them. Really, looking forward to hearing your thoughts. That’s cool. And tell me, sonny, what’s the stop somebody else coming along in the UK and doing this as well? Do you have?
Speaker 5:
exclusivity on this. Yeah, exactly so the Great Curve owned the patent stall of their designs. And yeah, like I said, on the official education provider for them.
Speaker 6:
I see, Got you Payment.
Dr James:
Mamad.
Speaker 2:
Can I jump in with a few things? Great talks, sonny, hope everything is going great on your side. I’ve got to list the questions. I’m just going to reel them off to you and then you could just answer them all, please. Number one what is so special about the system you have? There’s lots of. I’ll just list the questions out. Number one what is so special about what you have? At the moment? There’s lots of kids out there on the market. What makes this so great and can’t be anything which can take this over? What is that, number one? Number two you said the course is a 997, right. So that’s your highest ticket offering at the moment, right? What is what’s next Once I’ve been on the course? What’s next? And what’s next and what’s next? Because for me that model is very, very, very important that once I’ve come with you on the first, there’s then something else and something else and something else. Like you know, what does that look like? Hannah asked you about units and things like that. So what’s the revenue which you’ve made so far? What is your projected revenue? And again, just remind me how many years have you been doing this for? And the other thing is the VC money which you said you’d used to get more people to know about so you can scale very quickly. In what way? Where will that money be used? Are you looking at it like is it Facebook ads, or is it you know you want to get on, you know paid stages, or how is that money actually going to be used?
Speaker 5:
So so. So you know there was a bunch of them. Can you just tell me the first one? I’ll go through them one by one.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, fine. What is so special about the system?
Speaker 5:
OK, cool. So you know much of my time now. I do two clinical sessions a week, Max, and the rest of my time is on the phone with them, is speaking to them, is in their practices, delivering lunch and lunch and vice versa, so and so forth. Sorry, and you know what I’m hearing from a lot of them is that the current systems that they’re using, especially in practices that I really keep in one eye on cost, which, of course, is prudent they have shortcomings and these shortcomings lead to them having to redo that restoration. Yeah, they’re having to redo treatment for free, or they’re having to refund, which I think is worse, and now you’ve got an unhappy patient also. So our framework allows us to not have to contend with reader. I mean, no one’s perfect, no system is perfect. There are obviously going to be statistical situations. However, looking at my own data and the data of great curve users, we typically don’t get the same type of problems. We don’t have open contacts, we don’t have voids, we don’t have overhangs that destroy the teeth next door, and then we have this concessionary sort of kind of situation where they’re saying, oh, you know, I’ll just do this and try to mop up the mess, so to speak. So we can avoid that totally. The second part of that is, like I said, we can restore any situation, any direct restoration situation, with a single system. So that’s massive. On top of that, I’d arguably say, is really really efficient. So we’re massive on efficiency and workflows. Ie, if somebody can do three class five restorations in an hour, I can say we can comfortably do six, and that’s without shoving anything down the gun, you know, which can also cause problems in his own right.
Speaker 2:
So hopefully, OK, yeah, fine, and what about once I’ve been on the course? 997, what’s next? And what’s next?
Speaker 5:
Yeah, so just to touch on that, like I said, that’s the early support price at the moment 997. We do hope for that to be 49. So, yeah, but after that. So then the plan is for those guys who now have got the basic foundations down. You know, we’ve had a lot of demand from the delegates to start saying to us, for example, we’ll show us how you’re doing these direct composite crowns, you know, because that’s a big earner, right, that’s the same day to no scan, no alginate, not having to cut the tooth down, blah, blah, blah, and we charge the same as a crown for that. That’s really good ROI with no lab bill. Then these guys are saying that that’s now. We built an offering around that for those guys so they can then have this smaller mini course, so to speak. But then there’s a series of those that can go on for the whole year so they can then be subscribers, where they can subscribe and they will get ongoing training into more advanced applications, including formal, free have inclusion and all the rest of it. And we’ve even got talks with some other speakers to get involved with this project also.
Speaker 4:
So there is a new.
Speaker 5:
Revenue, revenue.
Speaker 2:
And do you know what’s the one even useful.
Dr James:
Do you know, just before you go on to answer about your revenue, sonny, you know part of Shark Tank is part of our offer and tonight, and part of what we do is that we also give feedback and things that you can use to enhance what you do. And you know what’s staring me in the face right now what about a one on one with Sonny, where Sonny goes into your practice, it’s some sort of premium package. You can literally demonstrate to these people how it’s done. Maybe that’s like a 2K offer and 3K offer and 4K offer, and I don’t know. You know, the thing about it is it’s very easy for you to put that out there. There’s no, there’s no overheads to basically having that, having that offering, and then, you never know, someone might take it someday, who knows, man, totally Just a thought.
Speaker 5:
Just a thought, bro. Totally I appreciate that. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, we talked about revenue. So we’ve had about almost 40,000 from courses and sales of the goods to our users. And just to just to mention as well, we also supply existing greater curve users, so the UK ones. So we take they can’t buy from greater curvecom. How many longer they buy direct from us. And that confers loads of benefits as well. Obviously they’re not paying customs and duties and all that anymore and they get you know it gets dispatched next morning, right? So as soon as the orders in it gets sent first class, you know special delivery and it’s in their hands. Yeah, was that all right?
Speaker 2:
OK, and then what’s the projected revenue? And last question after that, what is the VC money going to be useful for you? Yes and nobody.
Speaker 5:
Right. So I mean, if we play it like really safe and say, look, our aim is to have you know, ideally we’d like to have an in-person, the actual program itself, ideally be around once per week, right, and that’s not just me teaching it, that’ll be other guys who’ve come through the program who are now ready to teach, and there are a few of them already getting geared up for that. But if it’s one a week, 1500, 20 delegates, that’s just done. That’s about 900 K right there. And then we know that the average order rate for great curve products is around three months, two to three months, yeah. And we also know that the average order size, you know, is somewhere around the lines of like 250 to 500 for an average surgery. And yeah, even that just from the one cohort alone, that’s, you know, almost 10 to 20,000 per cohort every three to four months from the product sales themselves.
Speaker 4:
I think we should answer David’s question because it’s in the chat and it’s pertinent to exactly what we’re looking at.
Speaker 5:
Can you pack an album against them? You certainly can. That was a really good question. Thank you for that, david. Yeah, you certainly can. You certainly can and, like I said, you know much of my practice is cleaning up problems where overhangs have destroyed the two Subtingibly. You’ve got a subtingible problem intercaying between the two. You know it’s quite hard to deal with and we could have the greater curve wrapped around your tooth, really hugging tightly around the base of the prep, and then you’re packing your Amalgam. It can’t get through. You’d have to really ruin the actual whole setup completely for that to happen. So yeah, amalgam works also. So yeah, it’s for everybody. I mean just to quickly jump onto that, me and Travis, the CFO of Great Curve you know I’m a dream and he’s a bit of a dream, and we were talking about how much of a real world impact this can make. You know around the world also, you know. So we see us having a non-commercial side to this as well, where we’ve got this like really small pack. You know, I’ve got this in my hand. I can go anywhere in the world. I work in multiple different practices and as long as I have that, I can do good, solid dentistry. But that’s what other people can do around the world also, who may not have access to a dental chair with suction and all the rest of it. We’ve got a system that can allow for isolation and allow you to do dentistry anywhere, right? So actually.
Speaker 2:
And what’s the money going to be used for? Again Lasting, what’s the?
Speaker 5:
Sorry, sorry. The money’s going to be used basically to grow the company in terms of exposure. We need to, as you said. You’ve said some paid platforms. You said you know Facebook ads, etc. Marketing really is going to be our focus on that point because we have what we like to consider product market fit at this point.
Speaker 2:
And how much are you looking for?
Speaker 5:
Well, how long is a piece of string? I haven’t really actually looked at that number, but you know I’m not going to. You know I’ve spoken to very smart people before and they told me that you know when they did their company start up and it took them, you know, five years to get a million revenue. And then they see other fancy companies I’m not going to drop any names, we all know they are and they raised a million straight off the bat.
Speaker 2:
You know I mean they have a number ready. So like we’re like Sunny says make me an offer.
Dr James:
That’s what Sunny is saying right here. Sunny, thank you so much for your time this evening. We’re going to move on to the next guest. What a flipping, brilliant description of direct receipts.
Speaker 4:
I would like to say something to.
Dr James:
Oh sorry, Penman, yeah, of course.
Speaker 4:
And you know I’m not that much interested. I know Sunny. You know I met him on our composite course on mini-smile makeover. What’s particularly impressive about what you’ve done in such a short period of time is the amount of content that you’ve put out, and I think you know there’s this. You should look at also having an agnostic sort of course where it’s not only based around rate curve, because clearly your education side is strong and it could be that you know these other systems. The reason why people are messing up with them is because they’re just not educating than you are. You know it’s worth a thought.
Dr James:
Appreciate that Awesome man and you know what. Like I say, it’s really important that everybody who comes on tonight gets some feedback about their business and things that they can use and I think there’s some gems in there Sunny and honestly, one-to-one package. You know, here’s the thing is literally no money whatsoever to put that out. There Is no money whatsoever to put that out there and you never know, someone might take it someday. In fact, chances are they will do if you can show them first hand how you’re doing on a patient just throwing it out there, buddy, 100% appreciate that, and so does my mate. Hey, I love that You’ve already kind of been one.
Speaker 4:
You should also highlight the websites of everyone, right.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, sure. So I mean, if people want to learn some more, right, it’s wwwdreycomposite, which is D-R-E compositecom. Yeah, appreciate that.
Speaker 3:
Smashing stuff onto the next day, jay, just really quickly before we go. Oh OK, all right, and there’s no question, it’s a question of you. But if we have feedback or articles or things that we think would be useful for the different entrepreneurs, can we follow up with that afterwards? To direct.
Dr James:
Oh, yeah, yeah, and you know what? Open invitation if anybody wants to network, connect with each other or share anything that they might be relevant on the post, more than happy to do that. The more the merrier, and we’re all here to help each other. 100% Awesome. Anyone else? Or should we move on to the next delegate? Ok, let’s move on swiftly, michael Alatsaris. How are you, my friend? Jump into the Shark Tank and tell us about your business.
Speaker 6:
Hi everyone. Thank you so much for having me on and pleased to meet you. Yeah, delighted to be here and to have this chance to present this to everyone. Yeah, my name is Michael Alatsaris. I am an Edinburgh. I ran a private practice for about 10 years and I gave it up a few years ago to focus on product development. There are lots of ideas in the drawing board maybe 50 or so but this is the one I’ve been working on full time for quite a while now. In practice, I saw a problem recurring in almost everyone who was partially dentite. 74% of UK adults lose teeth and they’re facing this specific problem and the dominant effect of disease. 94% of these patients cannot clean all of the surfaces next to dential spaces. It is incredible. I’ve spoken to hundreds of hygienists about this and it drives them crazy. They’re spending forever coaching patients to use brushes that were not designed for cleaning this part of the dentition. Basically, patients are frustrated. They come back to be told they’re not following the hygienist’s instructions and they just go around in this cycle of failure for years on end. And wouldn’t you agree? We’ve almost accepted the cliche of extra plaque gathering on teeth next to partial dentures. So I got into designing the solution. I felt it had to be completely intuitive to use, requiring no instruction. Just get it to the teeth next to your space and do you like, up down, left right. Nice and easy. It should cause no harm and still clean even if they’re clumsy with it, needs to have an entry level retail price point and it needs to be environmentally sustainable. So I’ll share some photos of the problem and the new product.
Dr James:
Absolutely. Let me just put the press on so that you can do that. My friend, there you are, it’s all yours OK.
Speaker 6:
So can you see that? All right? Yes, we can. Ok, so electric or manual brushes, they’ve got bristles that are at 90 degrees to what is required. I mean it’s great for a clusel and buckle and lingual, but not for these aspects of the teeth. Hygienists often advise a single tufty brush for here, but they admit it doesn’t work and that’s what they usually advise. It’s got a very small tip requiring two precise a technique and it’s unstable on the tooth in this application. And interdental brushes often advise, but this is for in between two teeth, where the adjacent teeth would support the wire and allow an axial motion, which is great for, but it’s not to be used on the side of one tooth because it flexes and offers no tactile feedback in that application. So here it is. You’ll see I’ve gone for firm elastomer bristles with flat, flat cutting edges at the tips. It’s completely injection molded, which actually makes it really compact, so it can get down to three or four millimeter gaps and the brush head is double sided so it can clean teeth at either end of a gap. And well, let me, am I flicking through these too fast? Can you see them? Okay, no, perfect, yeah, all good, so it can clean teeth at either end of a gap with a double-sided brush head. Future versions will include replaceable heads and electric toothbrush applications. So I mean this isn’t just for those who won’t restore the space with a fixed solution Before an implant or an implant is placed. Before a bridge on implant is placed, those of almond teeth and ginger need to be immaculate. And even in the healing phase of an implant, the adjacent teeth need to be maintained before it’s restored. So those are the main uses. I’ll just stop sharing them. I hope that was clear enough and you could see it all. So why has this problem never been addressed? And I believe there’s a paradox in that when we lose a tooth, apparently space is created to access the newly exposed surfaces and that we can therefore coach patients to clean their using whatever’s available. But it’s clearly not working. So as far as the venture goes, this is a world first. I have filed a patent which is pending internationally, covering 30 versions of the innovation, so that’s all in the one patent application, so it will fend off any copycats. It’s 13,000 words long, so it’s basically covered every angle. The product has been presented individually to 100 hygienists and therapists across the globe and the response from them was unanimously and overwhelmingly positive. They all agree it’s a widespread problem and this innovation will cure it. Some are going crazy about it and they actually want a job and today actually a hygienist approached me asking when it’s available because she’s opening an online shop and she wants to sell it there. So sales projections in the UK would be based on starting from next year, january. The prototyping stages underway at the moment and I can go into more detail about the immediate challenges for the venture just afterwards. But sales projections in the UK are based on several conservative assumptions that we’ve made. If we can get 10% of UK hygienists and therapists to stop this each year, so that it’s 30% of them by the end of year three and that’s despite their habit, there being a unanimous approval of this so far so 30% of them by the end of year three. And that they see all their patients within the first four months of the year and we’re assuming the average three and a half days work a week and that they see this problem and recommend the brush four times a day and that 50% of those patients actually take up their advice. And, finally, that the patients themselves replace the brush just once a year instead of the recommended three months. That leads to a year one sales of 330,000 pounds with a net profit of 106,000. Year two sales 655,000 with a net profit of 284. Year three 982,000 pounds with a net profit of 526,000. So initially it will be supplied direct to practices and later direct consumers there is a whole group of people not attending the dentist and tap into that market at some point. The next stages are really cash intensive. So funding from investors would go a long way to helping that. Looking at 40,000 pounds for high volume to production and about 90,000 pounds over the next year or two for patent prosecution internationally, as well as all the expected, you know, marketing and order fulfillment costs, cash flow is a serious factor in our planning. Our peak cash flow pinch point is at the end of year one we are. 300,000 pounds will be tied up and that’s the kind of. That’s the summary of the venture and the position and what we can expect over the next kind of three and a half years. I did touch on it but basically the next stage just now is to have a low volume production made which will be ready at the end of the year, which will be clinically ready products that we will put out to sale but it is very, very low number and it’s mostly together and even deeper insight into the market response to the physical product and sending high quality handmade prototypes out just now, just for just for clinicians to have them in their hands and just put a value on it and to be able to make those initial purchases out of that small initial clinically ready batch. The next thing you will be when we commission high volume production and by the time it’s landed in the UK, will be July, june, july next year. But that entire six month initial period of next year will be occupied with raising awareness of the quite aware of the problem, but just raising awareness of the solution to this, this problem, and you know, just getting it out there. Really Thanks, thanks so much for listening and I welcome any questions and comments and feedback criticisms.
Dr James:
Congrats, michael. And you know what? There’s one of the sharks right here who’s taking a product from idea on a napkin all the way up to one of the biggest whitening brands in the UK.
Speaker 4:
So I’m going to let payment take the reins on this one a little bit and do Michael, congratulations, because you know people don’t understand how hard it is to get it, even that piece of design, done and out and protected, how much money we spent so far.
Speaker 6:
It’s been. Maybe it’s not been much really in the grand scheme of things, considering what it takes to get this far. It’s maybe been 15,000, 20,000.
Speaker 4:
Including the pattern. You know you haven’t spent the money on the pattern yet.
Speaker 6:
Well, I wrote the page and myself the the attorney. He added another kind of 3000 words and that cost me maybe 5000, something like that that’s impressive.
Speaker 4:
To get this far with only 15,000 spend very impressive. The one thing I would comment on, though, is don’t just assume I mean, I know you’ve got to be, you know think, think that everything’s going to go very well. But there aren’t many products there are in 30% of hygienists practices in even after 30 years on the market. There are a few, and people look at TPs and think it’s just going to be the next EP, but those guys work their butts off for years and years and years to get to the point that they got to. So I would just caution on that idea of getting 10% of the hygienist market is a massive achievement in year one a massive achievement. I’m not saying you’re not going to do it, but it’s a massive achievement and a marketing nightmare. What’s the plan? As far as you know, it sounds like you’re going direct to the hygienist. You’re not going to use any intermediaries. Is that right?
Speaker 6:
I mean through the engagement I found online, through LinkedIn primarily, has been incredible and I would say that even you know direct brochures to practices, address personally to hygienists. Expanding the kind of LinkedIn network I would like to offer, you know, free webinars once a month and get a kind of subscription, kind of engagement with the market. In that way, I’ve got so much to offer in this without even getting to the product.
Speaker 4:
My advice is incentivize the hygienist themselves, rather than the practice that there’s a product in the US, that that one of the one of the brushes yeah, yeah, and it really worked well for them and when the hygienist feels like they’ve got their own sort of mini business although the problem is you kind of need an app or something to do that was you start with a website and you know it’s further costs and hassles you don’t need right now. But Hannah will tell you that at this stage you’re basically running and changing the cars wheel at the same time as flying at 100 miles an hour. But congratulations, really impressive to get to where you’ve got to so quickly. Thank you.
Dr James:
That’s awesome and on that, actually, I was hoping to bring you in as well, hannah, because I’m sure you’ve got some insight and questions.
Speaker 3:
I’d say always no insight. I do have some questions. What do you say? You’ve obviously done a pattern internationally, so you think that there’s kind of a global appetite for this. What do you predict or what are you guessing the total addressable market to be for this product?
Speaker 6:
I know someone to analyze whether I mean basically the in the UK it’s quite startling that 74% of adults lose teeth. Across Europe it’s at least 50%, and the US, I think China is even maybe 80%. So those are the adults in need. There are, of course, adolescents that lose a tooth for orthotic reasons or otherwise, and those are the ultimate end users. Is the route to that market? That kind of is most interesting, because you’ve got those that attend the practice and we’ve got all these potential ambassadors of the product that are hygienists and therapists and dentists, and then there are those that don’t even attend the practice as a direct consumer. Yeah, the total addressable market is gigantic. And the other interesting thing is that the use of the partial identity state is not going away quickly at all, because the fully dentulous state is in slow decline, which means they remain in the partial identity state longer. So there’s this irony that this parcel of entity state will actually be around for decades and all the other factors that lead to tooth loss. So, yeah, I don’t know if I answered the question there.
Speaker 3:
And one more question, which is what do you see as your exit strategy here? What is your vision for the business long term?
Speaker 6:
I just I love the impact this is going to have. I haven’t stopped thinking about this for the last. Well, seven years ago I came up with the idea, but the last two years, full time, it’s been just really full attack really and I just can’t. I can’t let go of the concept because it just keeps proving itself in the validation I find every few months. I’m seriously, I was a validation. I just, at this stage, I can’t imagine letting it go. I’d love to be in the business, immersed in the business and just just getting out there and and so far I can see the path to achieve that and I will take advice on that along the way. I know I don’t know everything about what’s going to happen, but I’m enjoying the journey so far and I just can’t imagine letting it go. But yeah, ultimately I guess it could be sold off.
Speaker 3:
Thank you for answering my questions.
Speaker 2:
I’ve got a couple of things to ask you very quickly. Number one so you’re not practicing anymore, right? You said that you were spending full time on this. Is that correct?
Speaker 6:
Correct.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and then how many years have you been doing this so far?
Speaker 6:
Well, I saw the practice just under four years ago I embarked on a couple of ventures, which you know I won’t go into that as too many ideas and ventures and things that I tried out. I filed numerous patent applications for you know maybe four or five products, but part of those to pursue this one and it’s been since maybe two years ago that I’ve been full time on this. Also started the family to two kids, two, two year old and three year old at the moment. Yeah, it’s just been busy at home with family ventures and working on ideas and seeing what works.
Speaker 2:
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So do you know what? Obviously, with raising a family in that right, it’s expensive. How long can you keep going without any funding to make this happen? Say you’ve got no funding. How many years can you go on full Turn? Half, two and a half years. And then that’s it, you’ve burned through everything you have, and then you have to go back to the industry.
Speaker 6:
No, that’s. I mean I have, you know, liquid assets that I can access if I need to. To keep it simple, I would say, if I put another 100,000 into this and if I can have another 100,000 from investors and maybe borrow another 100,000, that would be. That feels like a sensible kind of allocation of cash.
Speaker 4:
By the way, if you have to become a dentist again, there’s nothing wrong with that, and I know you feel like that was a backward step. But I stopped for five years. Then I went back part time like three days a week for five years, yeah, and I stopped to the one day a week and then I stopped 10 years ago. But you know, there’s no problem with that.
Dr James:
Yeah, that’s good advice. That is good advice. You know you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do and it depends on priorities. Or someone popped the question in the chat earlier and they said the tips on the end of the brush or those disposable, or is it that you replace the whole thing?
Speaker 6:
The current version you would replace the whole thing. But within the patent filing there are numerous versions, including replacement of just the very end or just the kind of the ring shape part at the end, or the union could be further along the shaft. There’s numerous sort of permutations that allow a replaceable head with a permanent handle.
Dr James:
And where does the money go? Does it just free up the cash flow? Is that what? Is that the plan?
Speaker 6:
Cash flow is the biggest sticking point, for sure. I mean there are these expensive outlets, the IP, the intellectual property, patent prosecution and tooling and also stock. You know it’s the stock. Really that’s the biggest outlay over the next year or two. Yeah.
Dr James:
Awesome Thanks to Michael.
Speaker 4:
One final thing you know I understand as well that I’m all about product. I love product, great products and working on great products. But don’t forget execution is probably even more important than product. Yeah, Because your history of filing loads of patents, you’ve got loads of ideas in your head. A lot of times the first person to do something ends up being the one who dies, and then the copycat and whatever patent you’ve got, yeah, proctor and gamble will do a whole other looking thing if they want to. You know what I mean. So focus on execution now, because you obviously very strong one product.
Speaker 6:
Yeah, that’s true, and I’m finding that now that I’ve kind of had to almost now let go of the whole technical phase under its all you have to hire someone you know.
Speaker 4:
don’t be afraid of hiring someone who’s already selling toothbrushes. Thank, you.
Dr James:
That is solid advice. Actually, that is solid advice, michael. I have one quick thing I’m going to say, but there’s two questions that are popped in the chat here. The first one is do you know if you need medical device certification? Is from David in the chat. Is that something you covered earlier?
Speaker 6:
I didn’t cover it. It’s a class one medical device which is the simplest and see no issues. Without having done my research on that Over the next month, I think that’ll be filed.
Dr James:
Awesome. And then second question is it just for post area?
Speaker 6:
It’s for anywhere, and actually I don’t know if you notice in practice on your patients that patients with gaps at the front are even missing these areas, because the tools that I mentioned are still not appropriate for even for front teeth. Even when they have full access and they know where they need to go, the current tools do not help them. Even a manual toothbrush with full access, tilted on its side, is still partly obstructed by the alveolus sitting there, so they’re really up against it, no matter where it is in the mouth.
Dr James:
That’s awesome man. Thanks a lot so you know this product right. I’m guessing you’ve got it in your house somewhere. There’s a prototype that looks just like what’s on the screen behind you. That’s not just figurative, have you got?
Speaker 7:
one right beside you.
Speaker 6:
Is that what you? Yeah, that is Okay, brilliant. What’s it is kicking about?
Dr James:
I mean nice one Right.
Speaker 6:
This is just all white. I don’t know how well you’re going to see this, because it’s just Bring it close to the camera, buddy. Yeah.
Speaker 4:
Close to the camera.
Speaker 6:
Yeah, this actually has a handle at 90 degrees to what you’ve seen and what the final version will be, but I’ve got hundreds of these kicking about sending them out just shortly actually.
Dr James:
So my question is you have some I know that you’re going to go onto your batches and things like that but you do have a box of this product ready to go somewhere in your house. Is that right that you could give to a hygienist tomorrow and it’s got all the approvals. Yeah, you know what I want to see. You know what I want to see.
Speaker 6:
It’s not clinically safe yet, but they can hold it and feel it and they get it. When they hold it and see it, they just get it the ones that have held it so far, anyway, but I’ll be putting out another 50 or 60 over the next couple of weeks.
Dr James:
Right, right. You know what I really, really, really feel that you should do and I feel will really help you. It’s a skill that you could build in the meantime until you get to the point where you have a product Michael being out there on camera and all over flipping social media and Facebook and doing all the crazy things that are outside your comfort zone, because you know what, when that time comes, and if you have a following and if you also have the ability to speak on camera, it’s going to help you massively. Bro, that’s where so few entrepreneurs are willing to go and it’s also the best place that you can go. Seriously, mate, I mean that with love. If you can do that. Payman was talking about execution. That’s a huge part of your execution.
Speaker 6:
Thanks, that’s great. I’ll go into that.
Dr James:
Do it Do it, and if it’s scary, that’s probably the thing that you should do. That’s the exact reason why we should do it. You know what I mean. It’s no true. It’s so true, it’s true. Any one of the dragons? Anything else you’d like to say before we move on?
Speaker 4:
I’m a shark myself.
Dr James:
Oh, james, it’s shark tank. Shark tank, my bad, any sharks? Would you like to say anything, or are we good to go? I think they were good, michael, thank you. Thank you, thanks very much for your opportunity. Awesome product, bro, awesome product, but one to watch for sure. Cool On to the next delegate or contestant. We have David Bentley of Oguana Med. David, would you like to jump into the shark tank?
Speaker 7:
Good evening, good evening, good evening. Thank you for the invite, james, and well done with the group. It’s pretty good.
Dr James:
Thank you, my man.
Speaker 7:
Thanks. So my product and company are actually wearing one of the ladies tops here because it’s the Aguana Green which is only available in the ladies colours. But I am the owner and founder of Oguana Med UK and we think we make the most comfortable scrubs in the world. It’s a US company who have had no distribution in the UK ever. Outside of the business, I’m part of Oguana Med UK. Well, I am 100% of Oguana Med UK. I’m also a full-time dentist and practice owner and outside of the business world I’m a competitive runner and I’m ready for an early night because I’m running a marathon on Sunday. We’ve been trading for 18 months, started just after COVID, and we kind of fuck with the tagline of the most comfortable scrubs in the world. It’s focusing to very basic fundamentals the fit and the cut, and also high quality materials. We also offer within that a very large range of colours, embroidery and customisable sizes. I am on the shorter side myself and I’ve always struggled with leg length and always had the problem. In house jobs and working in hospitals. You always had the extra large scrubs that were available in the changing rooms and just felt absolutely drowned in them. So having leg length options is a massive thing for someone like me, and we also have the opposite solution to the problem with a long leg length. I used to wear trousers and a polo shirt and shoes and felt like I was in my school uniform when we were working and just wasn’t comfortable at all. I know we should all try and sit with a lovely straight back while we’re working, but we do move side to side, we stand up, we do this, we do that felt digging into your midriff. Uncomfortable shoes just wasn’t comfortable. So as a practice, we transition to scrubs. Just after COVID and I really struggled to find ones that fitted well, looked good, especially the leg length. Yeah, just everything. Just felt a bit big, boxy, poor range of colours, just couldn’t find anything I liked. And watching Dr Pimple Popper on the TV and I noticed her scrubs just looked better than any I’d seen before. And I searched and I searched and I searched and I could not find who made them, eventually track them down to the Iguana Med in the States. I reached out to them. They didn’t have a UK distributor, so we decided to test the water. A few twos and froes, getting things sorted and in April 2020, we sold our first product. It’s purely commerce based business and we started from zero with zero money, zero brand awareness in the UK, other than about two people who have contacted me since, who happened to have found them in the States as well. We’ve kind of done everything in a fully de-risked way. Basically, that’s probably meant things have happened a bit slower than they could and, as I say, I’m still working full time as a dentist and marathon training, so something that you can’t short, cut time wise and have a two year old child. So the time is at premium. At the minute. It’s a bit tricky to give you exact figures because, because we started in the April, our first year end was in November and we haven’t quite reached that next November yet. But as indicative, we turned over 15 and a half thousand pounds in the first year with a gross profit of about five thousand pounds. So we and this year so far, we’re on 21,000 pounds with a gross profit of around seven thousand pounds. So, as a rough guide, each year things seem to be doubling. We’ve had to. We’ve been deliberately cautious with marketing because, as anyone involved in product at the minute will not, supply chains have just been an absolute disaster and we had two months at the start of the year, where we just couldn’t get hold of product because it’s made in China. China was, despite what they knew said, essentially shut down. The initial growth is focused on UK dentists, just purely because I have connections there and things are a bit easier for me to access. Expansion wise twofold one staying in the UK, heading to other health care professions so obvious ones being medicine vets and sure opidists all of which we’ve had a little bit of interest from so far from zero marketing and towards them, just people who found us through Google and also heading into Europe. We, we don’t have any scope to branch out in the States because that’s where the parent company is. But Europe is the opposite of the UK. At the moment it’s very much a tapped market that now has no supplier. So with kind of unofficially taken over distribution to Germany and Poland and again sort of de risking, everything was sort of currently trying to operate that on a bit of a drop in kind of method which has the big advantage of only paying taxes, one way, which keeps our costs down hugely, and the two other ways that we kind of hope to increase the brand one, partnerships and collaborations with other brands. Competitors have similar things with fairly large companies and we’ve got one underway at the minute with a company called roomed away who make running underware and it’s incredibly comfortable, so fits in the same kind of niche. Also, I have a little mini target of trying to break the world record for a half marathon dressed as a doctor in the scrubs, which I think would give a bit of good. The it’s doable. The. What would you do with funding and marketing and brand awareness? Number one by a country mile it’s. The product has been very well received by just about everyone. Who’s, who’s ordered it, but still hardly anybody knows about. Was really website and other IT bits needs a little bit of work. Packaging has been again. Payment will understand this, I imagine. Packaging has been a nightmare. Costs have gone through the roof. Minimal order quantities have gone through the roof and we’re currently working out of my attic and it just physically isn’t the space to order 50,000 boxes. The minimum order quantities are just a disaster for us at the moment and the costs would be prohibitive at the moment. Ideally long term taking on staff, because the business is me, and finally to ideally improve the European distribution because postage and import duty costs are really high. So that’s us. It’s a small business. I think we’ve made a reasonable start, a very cautious start, but there we are.
Dr James:
Cool Is the eventual goal to leave Dentistry and run. This Is this where your heart lies.
Speaker 7:
It would be wonderful. I’ve always loved product and I enjoy every look. Obviously, if this was to scale I couldn’t do everything, but I enjoy all the bits of it. I enjoy the ordering, I enjoy the dispatch, I enjoy every bit of it. But with all my other things I can’t be all things to all men.
Dr James:
I guess my question is if this paid you the same as what Dentistry currently pays you tomorrow. If that happened tomorrow, you’d jump ship. Yeah, big time, Big time.
Speaker 7:
Big time. Yeah, unfortunately, dentistry’s also going very well at the minute, but yeah.
Speaker 2:
David, can I jump in with two things? It’s just a little bit of advice from my side. I think it’s going to be very difficult for you to be able to scale this big If the numbers are growing. Now you’ve been in for two years. You’re assuming things are going to double every year. Great. But to be able to sustain that level of growth and to be able to keep the level of growth going it’s going to need a lot of your time. You’ve got a young family as well. A few bits of advice from me is I feel that if you really believe in this like with everything I know, dentistry is going well, but it’s like the Golden Handcrafts you can stay in there and this will take a hit. Or you can maybe find a way to cut one or two days down and really focus on this and then give it up. I’ve seen so many people have tried things while doing something full time and then it doesn’t work and then they just go back to things normally or it’s half-hearted. So that’s the first and second thing. You know. You said because of supply chain issues, you haven’t done a lot of marketing. I wouldn’t back down on the marketing, the reason being forget the supply chain issues, but what I’m looking at is impact. I’m looking for people to know about you, so there can be backlog orders and there can be things that people can know about you. So I would actually run popular marketing right now with everything that you do, so people can get to know about you, because you know how social works. Social doesn’t work on the same day. It’s like you’re prepping for a year down the line. A lot of people get to know me on social and watching me for a year, and then they come into and then they meet me and then we do business then. So what you’re going to do now is kind of prepping up your 2023-2024 clients right, those customers. So I would really put your foot down on the marketing pedal. I would also, if you really believe in this, I’ll take a bit of a step out, maybe drop a day or two and really focus on this, and you’d actually make something great in this.
Speaker 7:
Thank you. A couple of things with that I have taken up to clarify. I work three days a week. Clinically. I have two days a week to run the admin side of the practice and this over the two days. Cool, and yeah, totally hear what you’re saying about part two of that. My cautious approach was based around because it’s such a new product, not wanting any kind of negative reviews, negative press, anything around. Oh God, this, they couldn’t deliver on time, they couldn’t do this, they couldn’t do that I want. I personally would like everything that the staff good, good, good, good, good and then, when supply chase, a happier I think what you’ll find.
Speaker 4:
What you’ll find, though, david, is, let’s say, you do some wonderful content marketing, like some beautiful videos or any clothes are ideal for that approach, and then people say I want to buy. The fact that you can’t supply might be good for marketing, Not bad. You know that we’re overrun, you know that that that’s not, it’s not the traditional way of thinking about, because people are aware of supply chain issues. But I agree with Namud you should. You should start content marketing right now. I think the time is really good for this product, because all practices are looking to. You know, get that sort of brand identity, and I’ve personally worn your top and it is very, very comfortable. It definitely is. I would be for cool, though. Comfort’s one thing, but cool just lasts for longer, so throw cool in there too. Oh, I like that.
Speaker 7:
I’m pretty sure I’m cool. That’s awesome.
Speaker 3:
I’m also just going to echo what’s been said, which is content marketing is going to take a while to get started. Actually, no one, no one knows more than pay them. He’s actually someone who’s given me advice on this before. But it’s a slow burn and it’s going to take time. It doesn’t initially have to cost you a huge amount of money. It’s going to. Eventually you might need to hire someone for that, but get that ball rolling because and also if you’re waiting for everything to be perfect, that could paralyze you as well as a growth of your business that you have to accept that there’s going to be a little bit of risk and a little bit of you know, breaking things before before you’ve got everything perfect.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, I agree, Take a risk. You know that that it’s actually a good idea now to take a big risk with it.
Dr James:
The content thing is huge. It’s, you know what I, I, I, I empathize David and it’s really hard to realize how significant it is until you actually see it from the other side and you started doing it. Because I remember at the start I didn’t really get the point and I feel like perhaps something that might help you is to remember that you can make content and grow following and get the word out there, but not even necessarily talk about the product itself. You can have the personal brand of David, are you with me? And then that’s something that links in with you have a personal brand. If you have enough personal brand. Think about Kim Kardashian. You know, this is the point that I always make to people. If Kim, if anybody, tried to break the internet who wasn’t Kim Kardashian, would it have worked? Are you with me? What, actually? Where did that actually come from? It was because of her personal brand. Obviously, that’s a very extreme personal brand. You know she’s really famous, but we’re all somewhere on that scale, are you with me? And the further you can get along, the further the bigger brand that you have as an individual, what the product can be tied in there as well. Are you with me? And then what that means is the content journey begins and also you gain the skills of a content creator which you can repurpose for later, and you go honestly. Honestly, mate, that was even before the other sharks said that. That was the one thing that was staring at me and the running is a great place to start. Yes, 100%.
Speaker 4:
The running is a great place to start. You know to you put your pins through on the running. You know the athletics.
Speaker 7:
And I’m all ears.
Speaker 4:
You know, to start taking a phone to the, to the races and talk to the camera. I mean, I hate it myself. To take the truth, we’ve got a couple of guys here who got over that problem. I love it, but it took me a while.
Dr James:
It probably took me about a year and a half of making content before I actually enjoyed the process. But what I will say is, seeing it from the other side, it’s huge. And you know I actually am looking at the outfit. I mean, paymon said it himself that he said it’s comfortable.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, it is comfortable.
Dr James:
Yeah, that’s awesome. The products there. Okay, I get the supply is not where we’d like it to be just yet, but it’ll catch up, it’ll come, it’ll come. And in the meantime, this is where we you put some of your energy in here. I’m so certain that I’d be willing to put money on it. Okay, that this will mean that your scope and impact will grow massively.
Speaker 7:
Yeah great, yeah great. That’s nice to have. Yeah, consistent feedback I guess means there’s gotta be some truth in it 100%, 100% is easiest thing in the world to do physically.
Dr James:
pick up this and shoot a video. One of the hardest things to do. Psychologically, big time scares the hell out of people, right, yeah, but if you can do it, you’re in a subsection of about 0.5% of people and you have a huge advantage over the other 99.5%. Yeah, and everything we say is with love. You know that.
Speaker 7:
Yeah 100% yeah.
Dr James:
Yeah, Awesome man, Okay cool. Any any other input from any of the other sharks not content related, because we’ve done that to death.
Speaker 2:
My thing is that it’s so like where you’ve got to right now and that next step, like that’s a big step and that steps about time and it’s about believing in what you’ve actually put together right now. And not many people are able to take that jump because I worry about what will go wrong and what if it doesn’t work, and you know what if I lose my money, and but that’s where everything is and your role now is to be able to take that jump and I always say your parachute only opens when you jump right. It doesn’t open when you stand still and that’s and that’s your thing right now to be able to jump. And you need to look at, as James said, the things that you find hard and then the things you need to do the most and just go, because lots of people have had this idea like you before and there’s other people like like that, who have ideas like you right now. What’s going to make you different, like why are you going to succeed? What’s so special about you? Why you? Why don’t anyone else? Like you know, it’s not easy to launch a business, to make it sustainable and to make it big. It’s very, very, very difficult. And the quality that you require of. That is the things which which, right now, you need to develop. So that would be my thing. It’s great to have this, it’s great to be here, but if you really want to make this work, it’s going to go and do the tough things.
Dr James:
I really Well done, david. It’s a flipping awesome scrubs. It’s a flipping off awesome, you know, set of scrubs and payment set that himself. And you know I’m really, really, really looking forwards to see where you take this. Yeah and well done and everything so far and this how we take it to the next level.
Speaker 7:
Thank you very much.
Dr James:
Top man, top man. And if anybody wants to reach out to David about his scrubs, denton soon invest David Bentley a Guana Med scrubs. Also, my friend. Thank you so much for joining us this evening. And you know what extra kudos to David, because he was originally planned to go on a marathon run tonight but he skipped it so he could be here with us. Nice one on that, david. Nice one on that. Right. Then on to the final contestant, we have Dr Kuran Koreshi. If he’s still with us, or has he actually through the back door? Oh no, he’s still here. I see him. Kuran, would you like to jump on the camera?
Speaker 4:
I am here, oh, he is here, hello.
Dr James:
Hello Kuran. Kuran a little bit about yourself and your business.
Speaker 8:
Well, firstly, what a fantastic room, so full of talent.
Dr James:
I know, Tell you what man it’s a tough one.
Speaker 8:
Listen, guys, raise your hand. If you got where you are through hard work, hell yeah.
Dr James:
Hell yeah.
Speaker 8:
There we are. Raise your hand again if you think that this is the main way and most important way to get prosperous. But it doesn’t come without as fair share of stress. Yeah, yes, yes. Now raise your hand again if you want to be able to control and reduce that stress so that you can really just punch your way through anything that comes through you.
Dr James:
Yeah, fantastic, three hands.
Speaker 8:
I’m a dentist and I love to hike, so I grew up in Kenya and I came and did my dentistry here. I grew up around dentistry because I fell several times, once when I was five, once I was 10, broke my teeth several times, went through braces I was the first kid in my year to have braces, but the only one to have braces, and my brother’s a dentist. So I’ve been raised around dentistry and, again, being in Kenya, I’ve been raised around the outdoors and I just love the outdoors, and throughout this time I’ve had my fair share of stress as well, and what I’ve found is that I generally like to. I don’t like to, but I’ve had to change myself in certain places to change my way of thinking, and I’ve found ways of reducing stress overall. But during the lockdown I got thinking that I’ve been in my practice for 15 years and my practice is brilliant. It’s a two surgery practice, it’s a private practice set up in a predominant council house area and it’s got over 2000 private patients and we’ve had two dentistry awards as well. So I was comfortable in my little zone there. However, I got no windows in my surgery, absolutely no windows, and for someone who came from the outdoors. This was really, really stifling, it was really getting to me, and I did a hike with dent plan and it was just amazing. It just I felt free and I felt clear and I was walking around with dentists and I said, hang on, this is something that I can do. So I’ve set up a little group that takes dentists up our mountains. It helps them to do de stress and we do leadership training as well while we’re out there, and it’s mainly geared towards principles, but other people can join in if they want, and that that’s where we are at the moment. It’s really meaningful to me because this is something I’ve noticed on social media quite a lot that a lot of our colleagues are very, very stressed. I hear no end of complaints on the social, on social media, saying that I’ve had this bad day, I’ve got this going on, I’ve got this hearing and I can’t see a way out. And I want to show them that there’s always a way out, but it’s not easy, but there is always a way out and yeah, so what we’ve done so far, what success we’ve achieved. I did a hike last year to snow them with 10 dentists and they all came back with fantastic feedback. I’ve done another hike in Scotland. I took someone who’s not been out for years and, yes, it was tough for them. They came back with a lot of injuries but they came back reinvigorated and through them I’ve had more people contact me to say that let’s do some more. I’ve done one in Wales and the last one in Wales we did with a group of small group of dentists with their children, and that was probably the best one I’ve ever been on, because we were supposed to go proper hiking for eight hours. We were out for eight hours but we did very little hiking. We did more enjoyment, things like looking around, running, you know, because with kids it’s never a straight line, it’s all directions with all of them, and that was just the best thing ever. So that’s where I am at the moment. What I want to do is I want to take this further. I’ve got a package where I’ve got three levels. There’s the conquer package, which is for a principal who wants it all. It involves one-on-one training, hand-holding, every step of the way. It involves getting fit over a year-long period, a weekend away with ourselves, with other dentists. It also involves team building exercise with the whole practice. So we take them out in the open, in the outdoors. Again, we do leadership training, we do skills. We help them all gel as a team. Even if you think that your team is useless, we can make them. We can turn them around completely. So that’s a year-long program. We’ve got the conquer package to the next level down, which is just for a principal who wants to generate or make their team gel a bit more. So that involves just a weekend package and a little bit of personal training, without the year-long backup course. One thing I forgot to mention the conquer package also involves, or ends up with, a trek overseas in the wilds of Africa, where you get to do some conservation work and you’re out in the sticks with no technology at all for about two weeks. So that really helps to reconnect, to re-wild, and what I’ve found generally is that my best ideas come up when I’m completely switched off from everything. The last package, that’s conquer, then we’ve got the sherpa, then the hiker package is just for the person who wants to better themselves and they need to just reconnect with nature and help them ignite their passion for dentistry as well. That’s where we are.
Dr James:
Thank you, Kerm. Was there a little more, Was that it? I think there is a lot more right.
Speaker 8:
That’s what’s in my head at the moment, and I’m sure that you guys will talk to me and more things will come up 100%.
Dr James:
You know what? This reminds me of a lot of the packages that Mahmood does somehow, so I’m sure Mahmood is in a great position to offer some feedback and questions.
Speaker 2:
So I love the way you presented that right and obviously we’ve been in touch a lot along the journey. I feel that this is an amazing time when you can go in and to be able to help other dentists. The stress levels, mental health issues right now within the dental sphere are massive. I’ve had people calling me at night and saying you know what if I want to kill myself, it’s that bad, it’s really bad out there. The fact that you’ve got something right now which combines your passion and the passion to help other dentists to have to get over what they’re going through, to help them gel the teeth, to help them get happier, I think is phenomenal, and I feel that right now, what you need to do is get as many people to know about what you do like really, yeah, put the word out there then to know you and then see where that goes. I think, absolutely brilliant. Things need to be continued. We still will do it, but apart from that, I think you’ve got something great.
Speaker 8:
Thank you. Yes, I’m trying my best to get out there. I’ve got a Facebook page. I’ve got over 300 people on the Facebook page. I am actually in the process of making a lot of content for social media, but I’m a bit picky, so there’s been a few things I’ve been really open happy with. So we’re just going back and forth with the photographer to try and get things just right. Maybe I should just get it out there and see what it’s like first.
Dr James:
The second one every time. The second one it’s got to be because you know what it desensitises you to be not being perfect, and that’s actually a very useful thing very underrated, because then you can just turn content out like bang bang, bang, bang bang.
Speaker 3:
Incremental improvement over perfection. You can let perfection like fully paralyze you. I’m saying something that I’ve said I get previously. But just get stuff out there, You’ll get, you’ll understand response from that how people are responding to what you’re putting out, and then you’ll be able to improve based on that. Yeah, don’t worry too much about making it perfect.
Speaker 4:
I’m not happy with the Enlightened’s output on social media at all. I’m happy to tell you that the Enlightened’s TikTok doesn’t make me happy one little bit. Nonetheless, we’re doing it, putting it out, and it turns out the things that work aren’t necessarily the things that you think are going to work. So whatever you think is perfect, it might not be the thing that the market, the algorithm, thinks is perfect. So definitely. And what an amazing idea to, what an amazing area to make content on hiking and all that. So it’s so easy to make good content about it. One question out for you Is this super stress dentist? Is he even the type to get the time to get his team together and go hiking?
Speaker 8:
Well, that’s where it comes from. You see, we’ve got the three different levels. So if somebody just wants to just switch off for a weekend, for a day, we can have that time for them, and if they like what they see, then they can go up to the next level. And if they want more than they’ve got, the next level after that as well, and we can help them. We can help them find the time, because the time is always there. It’s just how we make the best use of it.
Dr James:
Where do you see this growing? Where do you see this evolving? What does success look like? Success?
Speaker 8:
Well, one of the issues I had with the first hike that we did was getting accommodation for people, especially if it’s a two day hike, and then getting everybody to agree on dates. So what I would personally like is I would like an area, perhaps in Wales, because Nodonia is such a huge range, there’s so many walks you can do there is to have a venue there where I can invite all my delegates like a little resort for the weekend. I don’t have to worry about the logistics of, oh, this hotel isn’t available, that hotel doesn’t do this, this place doesn’t do that, that’s too far, this is too close. So that’s what I would like. I’d like my own little venue where I can do all this, have a little lecture theater where we can only do leadership training, but we can invite guests I’ve talked about this as well Come and talk about your product, market it there, show other people what you’re doing and do it in person. Plus, get a walk out of it and get to talk with other dentists who are in a lack-minded state and what I found that all the walks I’ve done in life are the ones with dentists are the best, because they’re the people I know. We all relate with each other. We can pour out to each other. Our emotions just come out when we’re around each other. I want a better way to get rid of all of that by spending it all on the mountain.
Speaker 4:
What’s the name of the company?
Speaker 8:
The name of the company is. At the moment it’s just with my Facebook group, which is called Energize Dental Teams, but I would like a more catchy name.
Dr James:
Yeah, I think you’re right, Maybe a more catchy name, but it’s a placeholder name for now. And you know what? There’s actually a lesson in that right, because even though you didn’t have a perfect name, you went and did something and progress was made.
Speaker 4:
Yes, the name’s a lot less important than what the name stands for. If I told you Starbucks before Starbucks was Starbucks, you’d say what the hell is that? Don’t overwire yourself with that. I think one thing you’ve got to focus on is the experience. That, above and beyond the experience, above and beyond the hiking piece, what’s so special about the company? I’m sure it is because you’ve got this enthusiasm, but what’s so special about the experience of coming on one of your weekends, and why is that special? And then I think, once you’ve pushed this, we go back to the needle through the market. Once you push the needle through the hiking market, there’s no reason why it can’t be other things. It doesn’t just have to be hiking. But I would super focus on making hiking extraordinary for dental teams. Now the question of should you buy this place in Snowdonia? It makes some sense, it makes life easier, but it comes with as many risks as it does solving problems, because if it’s not right now, you’ve got to sell this place, and that’s the nightmare too. So I wouldn’t stop yourself from going hiring different places until you find something that you really love and then go look for a place like that to buy.
Speaker 8:
Sure, the last work that we’re planning to do, another one in October, and that’s I’ve just opened it up to anyone and everyone and I’ve not actually organized anything with it. If you want to come and stay overnight, by all means stay overnight. Organize it yourself. Sometimes that just takes all the pressure off me as well. But as long as we get a walk done, we go out and have fun. And again it’s a little bit different because we’re talking dentistry out in the open.
Dr James:
I like it, I like it and you know, the beautiful thing about this business is it’s one of those businesses you don’t actually have to spend a penny to get it off the ground. You know what I mean To actually get it out there. And then maybe we’ve got these retreats in Snowdonia. They can come, they can definitely happen and, as you say, that’s further down the line. Hopefully Can I anything you’d like to say?
Speaker 3:
It is one quick question, which I kind of you’ve already kind of touched on just there, james, but this, this field, like the perfect business that you could bootstrap, like I would want you to think really carefully about what you need to raise money for, because raising money from VCs will have like so much complexity added to your business. Unless it’s absolutely necessary and they are going to be adding skills that you don’t currently possess, is it worth it and and yeah, so I take some time to think about that, but I love, I absolutely love the idea of this, like I can so believe that leadership exercises and T building exercises within nature, within these environments, that can be so much more effective. And as soon as you can start collating case studies and feedback and testimonials about how people find this, that is going to become your, your growth mechanism. If you can then just share that out, that will be the best seller of your business. Yeah, I think really carefully about what you need money for and why.
Speaker 5:
Fair enough.
Speaker 8:
What do you say? Share it out? One of the issues I’ve had is that I can share it on my platform, but other groups aren’t always so willing for to let me share these things out. How do I overcome that kind of barrier?
Dr James:
Here’s, here’s how you do it.
Speaker 2:
Create content without any selling it. Don’t go for the self, so don’t talk about what you do. Don’t talk about the course or anything you have. Talk about the benefits of mental health. Talk about the benefits of hiking. Don’t talk about the problems that are going on right now within the dental practice. Talk about the importance of having a gel team, the importance of making sure that your team are together. Talk about those kinds of things. People will be very happy to share them. Obviously, people will do this and they’ll hear about you. They’ll click on your name or go to your profile page at the top and it’ll say this is what you do, right. So so it’s about make as much general content for your niche and get it out as much as possible. Yeah, like you know, back in the day, when people used to give you a business card to someone else, the referral right now the biggest one you can have when someone shares your content right On their page Okay. So create content which is shareable. Okay, and it’s not about I have a course on this, nothing. Don’t have a lead, geninette. Don’t have a course, nothing. Just make content which you believe in, heart, wise, and this is the right stuff to put out. You’re educating the audience and just let it get out there. You know the content game is a long game. As we’ve said, it’s a slow burn. It’s not. It’s not immediate. It’ll take effect next year.
Dr James:
So, karim, there’s two types of posts. There’s only ever two types of posts you can ever put on any social media. One is a call to action. The other is a value post. Call to action directs the audience somewhere. If people see you do that on their other platforms, they’re not necessarily so open to that. A pure value post, where you just talk about the benefits of hiking and mental health that is what you’ll use to soft build your brand. But then I want you, with time, to also grow your own group too, where you can do whatever you like on there. Basically, you can have call to actions, you can have sales Now you don’t want to overdo it with those and even on your own group as well, because you put people off too. But that’s the powerful way that you can build some sort of brand. Karim, did you and, by the way, if anybody listening, the reason we keep going on about content tonight? It really is absolutely massive to any business to actually get it off the ground in 2022, and that’s why we keep going on about it and that’s why you hear us recommend it to so many people, because it’s so huge and it’s so helpful. So, please, anybody, no matter where you are on your entrepreneurial journey. There is literally no such thing as too much content on social media. Karim, have you got loads from tonight?
Speaker 4:
What are you thinking of doing with the money?
Dr James:
Sorry, sorry.
Speaker 4:
What was Karim thinking of doing with the money?
Speaker 8:
Well, there’s marketing, and if it takes off quite a lot, then I’ll need extra staff to help me out. And then there’s licenses. Especially if you’re guiding people up mountains, you need to have a license and you need to go through training for that. And those licenses vary according to what believe it or not, what height you can take people up to. So there’s all that Cool.
Dr James:
I actually think you know what I actually think there’s so much you can do right now with zero money. I really do. Money might expedite the process, but I think it was Hannah was saying earlier it sometimes comes with strings attached. That’s the only thing so just worth thinking about. But don’t get me wrong, it would speed things up. You can’t hear us, Okay.
Speaker 4:
Okay.
Dr James:
All right, I think we’ve lost Karim. I’m back.
Speaker 8:
My internet connection was unstable, so I just came up with that, so I can just repeat that.
Dr James:
Basically, I was just saying that right now, money may not even be the thing that helps you the most, because there’s so many things that you can do to get it off the ground. Yes, just worth thinking about. Anyway, karim, have you got loads from this evening?
Speaker 8:
I have. There was just one question from Mohammed Jaffer. He asked is the business seasonal? Yes it is. We can’t go out in deep winter. Or if we do have to go out in winter, then we have to go at a lower level. But my aim is for about four walks a year to start with, and then we go from there, depending on time and demand.
Dr James:
Top stuff, top stuff. Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 4:
Good to Australia in winter, sorry. Good to Australia in winter, that’s a good point.
Dr James:
There you go.
Speaker 8:
I’ve been in minus 20 degrees. Up in the Himalayas I can have a Barbie down under.
Dr James:
It’s always warm somewhere in the world. There we are, karim. There’s your value proposition right there. Awesome, thank you and congratulations to all the contestants tonight and, of course, to the sharks. So many flipping, exciting businesses and so much potential. So many things that we can do if we just put enough energy into them to get them off the ground, because it is all about execution. As we know, guys, we’re going to part ways momentarily. This is the end of the inaugural Shark Tank on Dentist. Who invests First of many. I know that for a fact. Before we do, we’re going to have some words of wisdom once more from the sharks. Sharks, what I’d like to know is what is your one piece of entrepreneurial advice that you can share with the audience, for all of the budding entrepreneurs who are out there tonight, who will be listening to this on catch up and are here presently, the one piece of wisdom that helped you get your business off the ground? Let’s go, mamma. Do you first please?
Speaker 2:
Hunger, hunger, hunger. Without a doubt, you’ve got to be so hungry for this game. It’s really. This game is about hunger. The hungriest person wins, not the strongest with the hungriest. So be so hungry and you will win. Boom, right there, Hannah.
Dr James:
how about you?
Speaker 3:
I just repeat the thing I said earlier, which is don’t drive for perfection, because it will just slow you down. You’re going to have to take risks and you are going to have to just get something out, learn from it, improve, rather than driving for everything being perfect.
Dr James:
Awesome Damon.
Speaker 4:
I think it’s pretty simple. You know, at the end of the day, business is about delighting customers, delighting your staff, those two things, that’s it.
Dr James:
I love that.
Speaker 4:
All of business.
Dr James:
I was going to say done is better than perfect, but Hannah pretty much covered that anyway. So my second, my second biggest piece of wisdom that I could give and this might actually be my first on reflection is work hard, and if you’re not putting it to an hour a day into it, you’re probably doing it wrong Seriously. I believe that from the bottom of my heart. Thank you and congratulations everybody for attending. Tonight. We’re going to be announcing the winner of this evening’s Shark Tank on the group over the next few days. Looking forward to that one and we will catch you all again very soon on the next episode of Denton Invest Shark Tank. Congratulations everyone. Hope you have a nice match and even what’s left of it, and see you all soon. Bye, bye.
Speaker 4:
Thank you guys.
Dr James:
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