Built my lab. Got acquired. Building another, but then what?

BradenBennett83

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Hello Everyone!

If you haven't seen this is my first post in the DLN forums. I love that there is a community here!

I built a dental sleep lab from the ground up in 9 months to about 29k per month. A biotech company caught word of what I and my team were doing and made an offer I couldn't refuse! Frankly, I built the business as if I could sell ay anytime (systematized, clean books and automated) so it was an easy choice for them to buy. Here is where I need everyone's opinion! I am building their technology center out which will take ~9mo and helping some clients along the way, but WHAT DO I DO NOW?!

The thing I love about the industry is there are so many opportunities and great people! What are some new sectors of the Dental lab industry that are opening up? 3D printing, A.I., Consulting, etc...? I would love to hear suggestions for a fellow entrepreneur!

Thanks all!
 
CoolHandLuke

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I've made a career out of CADCAM, so I'd be open to furthering that with the advent of AI and robotics.
 
BradenBennett83

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I've made a career out of CADCAM, so I'd be open to furthering that with the advent of AI and robotics.
I have heard of robotics in the production side of the business. Have you put any of that kind of tech in your lab?
 
CoolHandLuke

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I would have, if I was still employed there.

I may one day, again. probably with some other company though.
 
Jason D

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Hello Everyone!

If you haven't seen this is my first post in the DLN forums. I love that there is a community here!

I built a dental sleep lab from the ground up in 9 months to about 29k per month. A biotech company caught word of what I and my team were doing and made an offer I couldn't refuse! Frankly, I built the business as if I could sell ay anytime (systematized, clean books and automated) so it was an easy choice for them to buy. Here is where I need everyone's opinion! I am building their technology center out which will take ~9mo and helping some clients along the way, but WHAT DO I DO NOW?!

The thing I love about the industry is there are so many opportunities and great people! What are some new sectors of the Dental lab industry that are opening up? 3D printing, A.I., Consulting, etc...? I would love to hear suggestions for a fellow entrepreneur!

Thanks all!
So when you say “dental sleep lab” were you fabricating sleep appliances or doing sleep studies or both?

If appliances, assuming a sale price of 200$ average, that would be roughly 7 appliances a day. I’m interested to know why an outside company would make an “offer you cannot refuse” on numbers like that.

Please elaborate. It will help us understand your questions and perspective better and enable us to give more useful answers.
 
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I don't even know what a Dental Sleep Lab is.
Congrats on the success.
 
Z

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Not quite sure if you mill Titanium implants, but Ti bars and abutments are easy money if you have the machines for it.
 
BradenBennett83

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So when you say “dental sleep lab” were you fabricating sleep appliances or doing sleep studies or both?

If appliances, assuming a sale price of 200$ average, that would be roughly 7 appliances a day. I’m interested to know why an outside company would make an “offer you cannot refuse” on numbers like that.

Please elaborate. It will help us understand your questions and perspective better and enable us to give more useful answers.
Sorry, when I say "dental sleep lab" I am just referring to specializing in TMD/sleep appliances. It was actually less than that per case. More like $400/case. We provided more value, so we could charge a premium. What happened was I saw that there was a specific appliance that was out there that we weren't doing at the time and most of our current doctors were getting into it. I contacted the company and talked my way in to be 1 of 3 outsourcing labs. After doing a dozen or so cases the company came out to see my offices. I know what I'm talking about with sleep/TMJ and my team made the best in the industry. I did plan on growing, as I was only 9 months in at the time, but because of the need they had for in-house fabrication in this specific field, they made a great offer. I will be building a 30k sqft tech center for them this year after their IPO, then I'll see what my options are. Right now I am doing business consulting for two labs.
 
BradenBennett83

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Not quite sure if you mill Titanium implants, but Ti bars and abutments are easy money if you have the machines for it.
What is your guess for the start up costs on something like that?
 
CoolHandLuke

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What is your guess for the start up costs on something like that?
there are several ways to skewer this pig and each of them have as much to do with the CAM program as the machine this CAM is servicing.

for example, should you be in the business of providing custom abutments, you might also be interested in milling custom interfaces to service older clients or do business with people in countries you might not be so familar with on an economic level. for example lets assume you want to mill abutments for Syrian or Turkish or Greek customers, who use implants that can't be typed out on a QWERTY keyboard. quickly you find out this might sound like a niche market, but this is real life for literally thousands of people and it is a market that demands attention.

in such a case you would want to mill from Rod titanium ti6-al4, drill your own blanks, manufacture your own scan bodies and speak with renishaw about a nice ruby touch probe scanner. this level of precision will remand contact scanning.

you will then probably like very much to have a mill-turn machine such as a Willemin Mackodel. and you might want an Open license CAM program to write your own CNC sequences to turn abutments, and mill banks. CAm such as WorkNC will separate the interface milling from the abutment milling, allowing you greater flexibility in manufacture of components, as you will be able to modify each separately, to tighten tolerances and manufacture components in batches.

you may also look to 3d print - turn. for this for example you would design an abutment, but print a large ti cylinder, then simply clean up the interface with finishing tools and then mill the abutment. this value-add for you is adding half the cost.

overall startup will be in the 300-500k range for the equipment alone. the QC and CNC techs likely 6 figure salary each.

as to a mobile lab, RKM is quite proud to call a Trios all by itself a mobile lab, because each item can be sent to a place like Argen for manufacture and then shipped back in its finished state. I beg to differ slightly. I'd rather a Medit i500 and a 3d printer in the back of a van. this mobile lab would be the sort of lab to drive to every tiny native territory from Chibougamau QC to Whitehorse making immediate dentures for a grossly underserviced Native American population who have no dental/denture service for hundreds of miles. a same day denture would literally save lives for those people, and wouldnt cost more than 200k to start up, employ 2 people for an ongoing cost of not more than 180k (CDN) in salaries, gas, and printer resin per year, notwithstanding some incumbent costs of tooling, Van, sterilization, and PPE. the Native population are for a large part heavy smokers, diabetics, and drinkers. it will not be pretty.

thanks for coming to my TED talk.
 
Chalky

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can I ask what the sleep appliance was that you were making...?
I am in Aus and my lab is linked to an Oral Medicine clinic, we specialise in sleep appliances and tmd appliances. I have been working on a few designs in the background in attempt to improve on the current appliances available. id be very interested to know more about what it is you were doing
 
zero_zero

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I'd rather a Medit i500 and a 3d printer in the back of a van. this mobile lab would be the sort of lab to drive to every tiny native territory from Chibougamau QC to Whitehorse making immediate dentures for a grossly underserviced Native American population who have no dental/denture service for hundreds of miles. a same day denture would literally save lives for those people, and wouldnt cost more than 200k to start up, employ 2 people for an ongoing cost of not more than 180k (CDN) in salaries, gas, and printer resin per year, notwithstanding some incumbent costs of tooling, Van, sterilization, and PPE. the Native population are for a large part heavy smokers, diabetics, and drinkers. it will not be pretty.

All you need is a denturist license, a van (might want to tow a small trailer to sleep in) and regular equipment... way less investment and you'll turn a buck much quicker then trying doing it all digital. Be prepared to accept various forms of payments ranging from beaver hides to kiviak at some places...lol Rofl
 
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CoolHandLuke

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well digital would be cleaner and free of flammable fuels. the current providers who have attempted these kinds of businesses have been the sort of people to drive through once a year and work on cases as they go. with same day appointments that can go a lot faster and serve the community better in my opinion.
 
rkm rdt

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All you need is a denturist license, a van (might want to tow a small trailer to sleep in) and regular equipment... way less investment and you'll turn a buck much quicker then trying doing it all digital. Be prepared to accept various forms of payments ranging from beaver hides to kiviak at some places...lol Rofl
Hard to turn down a beaver....just saying.....
 
rkm rdt

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there are several ways to skewer this pig and each of them have as much to do with the CAM program as the machine this CAM is servicing.

for example, should you be in the business of providing custom abutments, you might also be interested in milling custom interfaces to service older clients or do business with people in countries you might not be so familar with on an economic level. for example lets assume you want to mill abutments for Syrian or Turkish or Greek customers, who use implants that can't be typed out on a QWERTY keyboard. quickly you find out this might sound like a niche market, but this is real life for literally thousands of people and it is a market that demands attention.

in such a case you would want to mill from Rod titanium ti6-al4, drill your own blanks, manufacture your own scan bodies and speak with renishaw about a nice ruby touch probe scanner. this level of precision will remand contact scanning.

you will then probably like very much to have a mill-turn machine such as a Willemin Mackodel. and you might want an Open license CAM program to write your own CNC sequences to turn abutments, and mill banks. CAm such as WorkNC will separate the interface milling from the abutment milling, allowing you greater flexibility in manufacture of components, as you will be able to modify each separately, to tighten tolerances and manufacture components in batches.

you may also look to 3d print - turn. for this for example you would design an abutment, but print a large ti cylinder, then simply clean up the interface with finishing tools and then mill the abutment. this value-add for you is adding half the cost.

overall startup will be in the 300-500k range for the equipment alone. the QC and CNC techs likely 6 figure salary each.

as to a mobile lab, RKM is quite proud to call a Trios all by itself a mobile lab, because each item can be sent to a place like Argen for manufacture and then shipped back in its finished state. I beg to differ slightly. I'd rather a Medit i500 and a 3d printer in the back of a van. this mobile lab would be the sort of lab to drive to every tiny native territory from Chibougamau QC to Whitehorse making immediate dentures for a grossly underserviced Native American population who have no dental/denture service for hundreds of miles. a same day denture would literally save lives for those people, and wouldnt cost more than 200k to start up, employ 2 people for an ongoing cost of not more than 180k (CDN) in salaries, gas, and printer resin per year, notwithstanding some incumbent costs of tooling, Van, sterilization, and PPE. the Native population are for a large part heavy smokers, diabetics, and drinkers. it will not be pretty.

thanks for coming to my TED talk.
The Medit is nice but my Trios can do much more.
PCDL is the person to talk to about mobile labs. As Zero stated, the lab of the future will be much different.
This is where I think there is huge potential.
 

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