Doug Hudson (Tend) - The First Dentist You Look Forward To Visiting

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My guest today is Doug Hudson, founder and CEO of Tend. Tend has reimagined the entire dental experience with transparent pricing, modern studios & no judgment ever. Previously he founded several consumer health companies. In this chat we discuss building companies in regulated sectors, why he decided to focus on disrupting the dental industry, and how he approaches expansion.

Some of the questions I ask Doug:

1. You've built multiple businesses in heavily regulated industries, what was your attraction to heavily regulated industries?
2. When you founded Tend, what was the fresh perspective and opportunity that you saw?What was the opportunity in dental?When you say direct to consumer when it comes to dentistry, what do you mean by that?How does the online experience relate to the in-store experience?How you go about building a brand around a patient journey
3. The NPS score for dentists are generally, very low. How did you think about improving that score in the category with Tend?
4. So once you decided this was the next opportunity, what were some of the first steps to building Tend?How did you pick the first location?How do you think about retail design and ambiance for each location?How did you approach building a brand?
5. What was your approach to attracting customers?
6. How do you think about the different components of Tend?What's the decision making process like when launching new products?
7. What's your approach to city expansion?
8. Why did you decide to fundraise from venture capitalists?
9. What was your approach to fundraising?What was your process?What was the biggest reason why investors past?
10. What's one thing you would change about the fundraising process?
11. What's one book that inspired you professionally and one book that inspired you personally?
12. What's the best piece of advice that you've received?
13. What's one piece of advice for founders?