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Conversation
Highlights
Sometimes the best startup ideas come from watching family members struggle. For Khaled Boukadoum, that moment came when his sister graduated from NYU Dental School. Despite years of clinical training, she faced a daunting challenge that her education hadn’t prepared her for: running the business side of a dental practice.
In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Khaled Boukadoum, Founder of Torch Dental, shared how this personal insight led to building a digital supply platform that’s raised $49.5M in funding. But the journey from identifying the problem to scaling nationwide wasn’t straightforward – it required rethinking how to drive technology adoption in an industry known for its resistance to change.
The Supply Chain Reality Check
When Khaled and his team dove into dental practice operations, they discovered a surprisingly antiquated system. “The supply ordering side of things was pretty broken,” Khaled explains. “It was a bunch of whiteboards or pen and paper and Excel spreadsheets. And Excel spreadsheets was like the most advanced dental practices.”
The inefficiencies went beyond just tracking inventory. Price transparency was non-existent, with practices paying wildly different amounts for identical products. Even more concerning, the traditional supply chain actually incentivized overspending through commission structures.
Starting Small to Think Big
Rather than trying to revolutionize the entire industry overnight, Torch Dental started with a hyper-local approach in Manhattan. “Part of the beauty of Manhattan and the density of it is there are hundreds and hundreds of dental practices on the island,” Khaled shares. This concentration allowed them to rapidly iterate on their product based on direct customer feedback.
Their initial go-to-market strategy was decidedly low-tech: door-to-door sales. Khaled and his co-founder would sign up practices, gather feedback, and immediately implement changes. This boots-on-ground approach proved invaluable for understanding their market, but it wasn’t scalable.
The Digital Transformation Challenge
The team quickly realized that the biggest hurdle wasn’t building the technology – it was getting dental practices to adopt it. “You really have to make sure the value prop is super clear and the ROI to the customer is apparent and materially better for them in order for them to adopt the tech,” Khaled emphasizes.
This insight led to a crucial innovation: pre-demo analytics. Instead of trying to sell practices on features, Torch Dental built a tool that could show potential customers exactly how much they could save on their current orders before even seeing a demo. The approach worked – practices could save 15-25% on the exact same supplies they were already ordering.
Scaling Through Digital Acquisition
As Covid-19 hit, Torch Dental was forced to abandon their field sales model. But rather than seeing this as a setback, they discovered an opportunity. “We found a lot of success in actually doing things fully digitally and allowing practices to sign up on their own,” Khaled notes.
This pivot to digital accelerated their expansion. Today, Torch Dental operates across 48 states, using a mix of digital marketing, trade shows, and referrals to reach new customers. Their marketing strategy has evolved to be “super metrics focused,” prioritizing demand capture and generation over brand building.
Looking Ahead
With plans to open an Austin office in 2025 and expand beyond just supplies into broader spend management, Torch Dental’s vision extends far beyond their initial solution. But their core insight remains the same: in traditional industries, technology adoption isn’t about fancy features – it’s about demonstrating irrefutable value.
For B2B founders targeting traditional industries, Torch Dental’s journey offers a valuable lesson: sometimes the path to digital transformation starts with a knock on the door and ends with a crystal-clear ROI.
Actionable
Takeaways
Start with Deep Problem Understanding:
Khaled's journey began by deeply understanding the dental practice ecosystem through his sister's experience. As he explains, "She kind of came out of school after years and years of clinical training... and really isn't much training on [running a practice]." This firsthand exposure to the market need helped shape their solution.
Embrace High-Touch Product Development:
Early success came from direct customer interaction. As Khaled notes, "We actually went and started knocking on doors in New York... we'd sign up a few practices, and then we'd run back to our office and we'd actually start chatting with our CTO and kind of make adaptations or changes to the product." This rapid feedback loop was crucial for product-market fit.
Demonstrate Clear ROI for Traditional Industries:
When selling to technology-resistant industries, value proposition must be unmistakable. As Khaled shares, "You really have to make sure the value prop is super clear and the ROI to the customer is apparent and materially better for them in order for them to adopt the tech."
Leverage Data for Personalized Sales:
Torch built what they call "pre-torch analytics" which, as Khaled describes, allows them to "create a whole custom demo for them, showing them how much they could save on exactly the same products." This data-driven approach makes the value proposition concrete and personalized.
Focus Marketing Efforts on Measurable Outcomes:
On marketing strategy, Khaled emphasizes, "We've learned to be super metrics focused... to be really focused on kind of demand capture and demand gen opposed to more of kind of just general brand level marketing." This approach ensures marketing spend generates tangible results.
Choose Strategic Expansion Channels:
Understanding where your customers are is crucial. As Khaled explains, "We're focused exclusively on dental practices at this stage. So we know who our customer is, we know where they live, and we're just really targeted in our approach on how to communicate with that and where to communicate with them."
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