Anne: Hello everyone, it's Anne Duffy and welcome to Dental Entrepreneur, the Future of Dentistry podcast. I am so happy you're with me today, and I'm really excited about my guest because I knew him when he was just a young pup getting into dentistry. I met him at a trade show, I think it was the Hinman years ago, and I wanna tell you a little bit about it before we get started.
Cory Pinegar is Chief Executive Officer of Utah based reach a groundbreaking dental service startup helping dental practices increase patient engagement and revenue. In 2016, at the age of 22, Cory struck gold and purchased the company then named Recall Solutions from Software Giant Weave. For just $1.
Since then, the visionary entrepreneur has grown reach from 35 clients to nearly 3000 with a workforce of close to 200 employees. Reach has been named one of the fastest growing companies by Inc 500 and has been recognized repeatedly by the Salt Lake Tribune as one of the best places to work.
No doubt about that. Please help me welcome Cory Pinegar. Hello, Cory. Hey,
Cory: thanks for having me on. It's good to see you again.
Anne: Oh yeah. It's so good to see you. Oh my gosh, I remember you just getting started and you know, I think it was call Force. I remember that. And you just were busted it and just whatever it takes right to build your company, your kingdom, your visibility and all of that good stuff.
But tell me, how did reach start, because I have lost a little track with you and I wanna hear our viewers know about reach.
Cory: Really good question. So CallForce rebranded into Reach in Ooh, 2021 roughly. Don't quote me on it, but I'm pretty sure. wrote a little bit about this in our upcoming article, and my goal today is to kind of bear the good, the bad, the ugly of being an entrepreneur, I think all of us, and something that's happened within our world, whether good or bad, during the last.
30 to 40 years is entrepreneurs and large business runners have become idealized. You know, the Forbes 30 under 30 and there's, you know, your 400 richest billionaires in the world and reach I bought it in December of 2016 and reach the first five years was a total pain in the ass.
And you can quote me on that. Really what we realized during the first five years is to build a great business, you need to solve a real problem. Mm-hmm. You need to have scalable processes and you need to have the best possible people out there. And the reality is in, the 2122 era, we realized we had a market that had real problems we needed to solve within dentistry.
We had great people. We deeply missed on creating something that was scalable. And so what we did when you and I met Anne, was we did recare calls where a practice would come to us and say, Hey, here's our thousand 142 patients, and we would also answer overflow phone calls. And the issues that we ran into is every practice, as we all know, is wildly unique within their own right.
And I think people look at dentistry as just. It's dentistry, but people, cookie cutter schedule, different people take different insurances in and out of network. And so as we grew the business. We realized that one of our call center agents is going from vinegar family dentistry in Boston to Ann's dental office in San Diego, California.
And because they're so wildly different then delivering the quality when you service thousands of practices became immensely hard. So going back to your earlier question of why did we switch is we realized to provide a scalable service, we needed to provide one-on-one team members. But in the current way dentistry works with no unified scheduling system, it was really hard to scale our original theories.
Anne: That makes perfect sense. now I see how you went From point A to point B, the problem you saw and then you figured out a way to fix that. And so that has morphed into Reach? Yes. Which explain to me what Reach is, because I'm very intrigued on that.
Cory: So at Reach we provide dedicated virtual assistance.
I think a lot about what we do and I was onboarding, a new member to our sales team this morning. And you know, I think about when you go buy a car, unless you're going to buy a Ferrari or when you go to the doctor to buy medication, you're not going for a particular car.
A car takes you from point A to point B. Mm-hmm. And so really the way we solved it before didn't work, but we could invent a new car that got us to where the practice was looking to go. And the reason people come to us for virtual team members is they're missing a ton of opportunity.
They know that costs are wildly higher today and they have to staff differently to be able to survive the changing market. And the final thing is, during COVID, I think a common term that we all became familiar with was the great resignation. we get calls all the time from dental practice owners saying, Hey, I've hired my front desk, or different people, three or four times during the last 13 or 14 months.
I've got to do it differently because what I am paying, or the way we're doing itis not working.
Anne: And on onboarding a new, what do they say? You lose a, I don't know. I'm making it up a hundred thousand dollars every time you have to replace an employee. and it's really hard to keep your employees that you've had for a long time in their seat, right?
They're either getting transferred, they are walking away and. I love the idea of the va that has worked out well. I have experience with a VA that is from another country, and she has been an amazing asset to our team. Tell me how you build your structure of employees within reach.
how do you find your amazing employees? And then, walk me through what it means to onboard them. Because again, that's the pain in the butt. That is the missing piece because nobody has time to onboard their team to keep them engaged and on track.
Cory: so the reason we even started hiring internationally originally? Mm-hmm. And I'll be the first to admit, the only interaction I had ever had with international workers growing up. my parents when I was young, opened a Wells Fargo account that I kept my 32 cents to my name in. And, you know, when you had to call to get a new debit card or a new credit card, you would get routed to a different part of the globe and it always sucked.
You couldn't understand what they were saying and they couldn't solve your problem. And so I had a very tainted reality of what I thought international talent was. I thought people only outsourced 'cause it was cheap. But you got mediocre. Yeah. Quality back. Yeah. And we were running a, our call center, we had 30,000 square feet in Lehigh and hundreds of team members in it.
and dental Intel and solution reach and all of these other Dentrix are based. And so we ended up saying, you know what? We can't even sustain these rising costs in COVID. And so we hired a team member out of Brazil and a team member out of Argentina. And we were able to do that because we're obviously headquartered in Utah and down the road from US is the school BYU or Brigham Young University, and they have a program called BYU Pathways, where people from all around the globe can attend BYU virtually.
So the way we're able to find our talent is through the BYU Pathways program. When people graduate, we get access to their records. And so then we're getting people who have gone through a US education and gone through years of dedication towards it, where then we know they're really good and then we can work to dedicate them towards dental practices.
And obviously,through the years we've diversified beyond BYU Pathways, but still to this date, they are a significant source of a lot of our applicants and hires. Your second question you asked was really interesting. How do you train 'em or how do you onboard them? Because dentistry is incredibly complex and uh, what we have built through the years, is something called Reach University.
And it allows a practice when they come in to then say, okay, I use Dentrix and I use Weave, and I use. Mango voice and then I'm hiring this person to do insurance verifications. And based on those buttons being hit, they get assigned, courses that are only specific to what the practice is hiring for.
So instead of just saying we're blatantly training people to be dental virtual assistants, we have built a.More of a Lego block kit, where then if you want to go build whatever you need or train on whatever is valuable within the practice, that gets assigned and the team member can always return, rinse, and repeat through those so that the training is actually relevant to the uniqueness of the practice.
Anne: That's genius. That is really amazing because when I hired my va, I was in charge of training her. And, I am not a trainer. I mean, I have gifts. Cory, let's just say I have gifts. That's not one of my gifts. I basically threw her in the bathtub and said, well, good luck. Don't drown. Then that's the big thing about getting new people.
There's so many great things about this. This is what's so cool. Everybody that's listening, I don't know about reach and I am loving learning about this. How cool is that from, first of all, BYU, they're going through that education. That is a higher education, very well thought of in the education arena.
And then to be able to hire them and then that gives them such a gift. They can live in their country and they can make a decent salary. you feel great about it, they feel great about it, and then you're training them. So that eliminates. So much for a dental practice because you've got somebody that's can hit the ground running and know those systems.
Because to me, when you, when you saywe, even Mango, I love all those people, but I don't understand any of that. I don't understand how it incorporates into the dental practice. And I'm thinking about we can teach people, right? But you hire for character and for culture.
But this is another layer of like, and you're hiring them for expertise as they start. Working in your practice for you.
Cory: And as your roles change, you can go back and they can continue to take courses in other areas. So it's not meant just to be a foundation of training, but a continuous place. 'cause people, when they go to a business, they want to grow and learn.
Yeah. Not just, you know, learn their three to four main areas and then sit and rinse and repeat. And so every week we're adding new courses. based on where practices feel they need better training. And the one thing we can't replace is here's how we do it, which is that, you know, uniqueness on where you schedule, how you schedule, and all of that unique information.
But if we can make the first 75% easier, it's a game changer.
Anne: Yeah, it is a game changer. This is really cool. And do you work all over the United States?
Cory: for our practices, yes, we serve all of North America, so the US and Canada.
Anne: I love that you really have solved a lot of the problems that I'm still hearing about today and put that into place.
I love the idea of the university. Now, if somebody's looking at your, site, which is, get reach.co. would they see the university there? Would they see part of that and what that's all about? Because I looked at your website, but I wanna know a little bit more about, you know, how to find all this yummy information about reach.
Cory: So we are going through a website overhaul,
Anne: okay. Right
Cory: now. So as you've mentioned, and I agree. our website's been outdated as we've refined and built our services, and so instead of just continuing to change or color different bricks, we, you know, a couple months ago made the decision of let's start from ground zero and build back up.
And so we'll be launching brand new website before the end of the year. That is a lot more clear on what we do, how we help solve it, and what makes us unique.
Anne: Yeah, I love that. So we, everybody's rebranding their website. So are we, you know, we thought ours was great and then now there's so many things on the backend, and that's a whole nother, thing that, you know, again, how fast is everything moving tech-wise, you know, you're in, Silicone slopes, I guess is where you are. Hey, you are your lingo. You got it down. Well, I love Utah. I was there recently, with the Dental Collective and you know Eric Roman and Josie Swale, right? Yeah. They're awesome. Yeah,awesome. So yeah, maybe when I come out there next time, you and I'll meet in person again, if not at a show, but.
I hope I recognize you. You've just grown up into this, you know, amazing young man. You're still young. and I love that. it makes my heart's so, grateful for you, knowing you when you were, you know, just, I don't know how old you were when you started
Cory: when I was 22.
Anne: So, and you had a dollar that 32 cents added up in the, I know that the Wells
Cory: Fargo interest greatly accrued.
Anne: I love it, but you saw something and you know, not everybody can stick with it. And we talked about that. It's like, I can't wait to get your article and everybody that's listening to this, it's gonna be in the fall edition, which is gonna be an amazing edition by the way, of Dental Entrepreneur Magazine, the Future of Dentistry.
And I can't wait to hear more, about your journey and your story because people think it's easy. Oak Cory just did it. It's so easy. But no, you know, you've had, I'm sure a few sleepless nights along the way.
Cory: And I think you just said something fascinating. kind of talked about, I saw something in it.
I think you're pretty young and dumb at 22. Yeah. Um, myself, deeply included in that bucket. And why did I do it? I think I always felt the entrepreneurial itch. And. The offer was presented to take on this business doing, $200,000 a year and arguably making no money or very minor amount.
Now obviously as a 22-year-old, $200,000 a year in revenue seems monstrous and it looks like it's all pure profit. It's not. Yeah. But my,I went to my dad, who I deeply respect in business and I said, Hey, pops got this awesome opportunity. I was supposed to go work for one of the large investment banks, at the time, and my dad came from a, large consulting background, so more of the traditional path.
Told him about it. And his first response was, this is the dumbest idea I've ever heard you say. Thanks, Dan. And as we all know, with our loving relationships with our parents, there's something about proving them wrong and why did I stick with it? And I,I couldn't honestly say at that time that I fully understood the business we were buying or the problem that we were solving, but.
I bought it because I wanted to show my dad that I could take something and,make it bigger and better. And to do that we had to morph and solve the problems in different ways than when we started. That drive of being an entrepreneur is, you're not gonna get it at your first at bat. You're not gonna get at your second at bat, but I look back at those early days, even though they were incredibly hard as so fulfilling as I'm gonna go out there and learn, and there has not been a more valuable experience than going out there with people that you care about and trying to solve a problem.
Anne: Yeah. It's so rewarding. I think onceyou step into entrepreneurship, you know, pretty soon if you're meant for it. You know, my husband quit his corporate job when he was 42, and he came home and said, I, you know, I'm gonna, I don't wanna move the kids anymore after 10 moves.
We're not gonna move 'em anymore. I'm gonna start my own business. And I'm like, oh, great. We'll be millionaires right away, honey. I cannot wait. I'm so excited. I love being a corporate wife. And then we all know, wow, it is a fricking rollercoaster up and down, but there's nothing like. Working for yourself.
And a lot of the docs that are listening to this right now, they own their own practice. And I,I believe that most dentists, go into, dentistry because they like the idea of owning their own practice. Like, we get to make the decisions, even though, how many decisions do you make a day as an entrepreneur?
Cory? I mean, I can't Oh, you're
Cory: starting thousands, hundreds,
Anne: yeah. Tom always says, don'tend your day with a bad call. Make another one. And usually it's that call that will maybe set the tone, well for the evening and for the next morning because it is just something you hang on.
It's grit, perseverance, connection and tell us a little bit about how your relationships in the industry. 'cause you're, you're right there with everybody and you've got great relationships. How has that helped you being in Utah with all the different tech industries and your friends?
Cory: the world of dental in North America is about 200,000 practices, so it's big, but it's tiny.
Anne: Yeah.
Cory: And relationships mean everything because those are the people when you call and say, Hey, is this event worth it? Or, you know, could you open, a connection to one of your partners or one of your customers?
And it's where you develop advocates and it's where you can bounce ideas. And so it takes years to cultivate. But it's one of the most important assets that we have and that we protect highly because the market will continue to change. but partnerships can remain really steady.
Anne: Yeah. I know. It's like, you know, one of my other Doism and Can relate this to any business as good people, find good people, and darn, you gotta be a good person and you are a good person. You know, people can trust you. And thenknow all the guys and gals that you talked about before, and the companies, they're good companies.
They really do the best they can to serve the beautiful. Profession of dentistry. I just love how you've,morphed into this, that this is really something special as far as helping the practices, be able to run smoothly without being up at night and wondering if somebody's gonna likenot show up to work the next day.
Right. I mean, that's a big problem that you've solved peace of mind.
Cory: And the reality is the market has just changed. So much. I mean, I look at when my dad was growing up, he worked for a very large fortune, 100 company and if he went to work, it's either he is on the road for work, which he did a lot, or he went into the headquarters.
There wasn't this remote aspect, and I wouldn't even say until five years ago, remote was a concept with entry and then yeah. COVID happened where then someone's family's moving from Utah to Kansas and it's like, well, mm-hmm. Should we lose our biller? Probably not. only possible because there's now cloud-based PMSs, there's remote access and there's VoIP systems where, guess what?
I can be in Argentina and my phone will ring at the exact same second it does in my practice. because of that technology change, now dental can operate. Differently. And if we don't operate differently with adoption to AI and looking for a global workforce, we're eventually gonna get hit by the tsunami.
I mean, one last thing to bring up is, and I'm sure you're well aware of this, you look at reimbursement rates over the last 20 to 25 years, they're up. But if you look at inflation and cost over that time, inflation dwarfs. The amount that insurance companies are paying out. Mm-hmm. And what's interesting about that is you have a floor that is going up considerably faster than a ceiling, and the only person who's stuck in that wave is the dentist who owns the business.
And so unless we start doing things different, and I empathize and connect with the idea that. Years ago, what I thought of international labor was extremely misconstrued. But I understand and connect with it. But unless we start solving the problem differently, we are going to be overstressed by the business.
It's why. Dentistry has overstressed and overworked owners because you're clinically running a group or a practice eight hours a day, and then after hours you're expected to be the CEO. I get to be the CEO for a full-time job. Have a second job. And so we just need to start doing things differently to alleviate that financial pressure and that pressure as an owner of how do I have reliable team members to go to bat for me?
Anne: Yeah. That's so cool. So let me just before we wrap this up, what positions can you fill through reach?
Cory: I'm gonna start with an analogy that I'm gonna close with our most filled positions.
Anne: Okay?
Cory: Most people in dentistry have a front desk.
If you had a back office, anything you can do in your back office is where you can hire a remote team member. Answering the phones, verifying insurance, working on revenue cycle management, any other admin related area. But all of those things, if we think about it, actually bog and take away from the building of relationships with patients.
Mm-hmm. Which is the most important thing that someone can do. And so the goal of this isn't to actually fight. Against the front desk team. It's to relieve them and specialize in different areas so that we can all do what we're best at.
Anne: Yeah, that is so right in the industry, because 46 years of clinical hygiene, the front desk is so stressed by all those back issues that you just talked about, and really, they should be the welcoming, the hospitality.
The peacemakers, settle in people we're going to, treat you well. And they lose all that with, a ton of stress on their back. And that's why they all get burnt out because they're spinning. Talk about a. Dental entrepreneur, that is so true at the front office so often is the intrapreneur and running everythingwhile these plates and they're falling all over the place and you know, then,they can't take it and they leave the profession.
And then we're losing great people now we can put the,great people have 'em sit in their seats and have the help they need to really thrive and have the practices thrive and the patient care, thrive So it's a win for everybody.
Cory: here's my last prediction and this is my gut as an entrepreneur.
We obviously know automation and AI today is bigger than ever.
Anne: Yeah.
Cory: What will be the most important competitive edge or connector in dentistry going forward? It's empathy in a human connection. when a, my flight gets canceled by Delta. I want to talk to a real person. I don't want to go through their chat bot, even if it's quicker.
And though AI and automation is vitally important for the mundane, what we cannot lose and what people will seek after is those real relationships. And so when you as a dentist and when you as the front desk and all other parts of it are focused on building that differentiator, you can have a team behind the scenes supporting you and the rest.
Anne: Yeah. That's the way to do it. That's the future of dentistry. Thank you very much. Now I want one last question. If you could give one piece of advice to a new dental entrepreneur, what would it be?
Cory: There is a,book written from a Cal professor in the 1980s, and it is called Stakeholder Theory. And Stakeholder Theory talks about what it takes to create a sustainable business, and within that it is all about solving and providing value to your customers, providing value to your team members, and providing value to your partners.
I think when businesses focus on solving problems and providing value, the actual fundamental of the business carries on in a really sustainable way for years. Oftentimes, as entrepreneurs, I think we go for what gets sales or what gets quick wins. When we strip back and think about long-term value, then you actually build a snowball that eventually carries you and the business forward.
Anne: Yeah, you just stay with it. Stay on top of things. Wrap yourself around your community of people that will help you get where you wanna go and just continue being you. And you're just, you're awesome. I'm so happy to have seen you and met you today again, and, uh, wishing you all the best. Tell us how we get in touch with you and how we get in touch, with reach.
And we'll have that in the show notes as well. But how do people get in touch with you?
Cory: Yeah, best ways to reach me, LinkedIn, Facebook, I know all of us in the dental community are quite active on each of those and the,best way to reach us at reach, no pun intended,is our website, which is www.gi reach.co.
Anne: All right, well, we will see you. I will see you soon, I'm sure, somewhere around the globe. And thanks so much for sharing this time with me. I can't wait to see your article in our next edition. I can't wait to see you, give you a hug, and I wish you all the best going forward. gonna reach out toyou again soon, Cory.
So thank you so much for being with me today.
Cory: Thanks everybody.
