Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
My name is Chanel Banger, and I'm recording
live at the Becker's Healthcare Future Dentistry Roundtable.
And right now, I'm sitting with Will MacInnis
and Ananya Shah, co CEOs of Cliff Ridge
Specialty Partners. Thank you both for joining me
today. Thanks so much for having us on
today. Perfect. Well, to get us started, could
you please both introduce yourselves and then tell
me a little bit about your background?
Absolutely. I'm happy to go first. My name
is Will MacInnis. I'm the co CEO of
Cliff Ridge Specialty Partners.
My background
is in health care, finance, and investment banking.
So I spent a number of years at
Credit Suisse doing health care investment banking, then
was in, health care investing at a company
called TPG for a while, both in the
US
and in the EU. And then I spent
2 years as CFO of a Silicon Valley,
tech company called Vial, which is where I
met my cofounder, who I will now introduce
himself.
Thank you. I'm Ananya, the co CEO of
Cliffridge,
with Will. My background,
is primarily in health care operations. I spent
a number of years in health care consulting,
and spent some time with Will,
as the COO of, Silicon Valley Healthcare startup
that Will just mentioned. We started this company,
about a year and a half ago, and
I've been leading the operation side. Will has
been on the finance side. Perfect. Thank you
so much for those introductions.
Now moving forward, what key experiences have shaped
both of your leadership journeys in the dental
and DSO industry?
Happy to take that one. I would say,
you know, Ananya and I have a lot
of experience in companies that we've worked with
previously
doing,
single site operating health care. So a lot
of the the work that we've done previously
gives us a skill set that I think
is transferable into
dental and into orthodontics and and pediatric dentistry,
which are the 2,
specialties that we are specifically focused on.
I'd say our first deal
in Seattle,
definitely gave us a lot of the,
the the skills and I would say the
core experiences that have guided our leadership journey.
Out of the gate, we had some staffing
challenges, which I think everyone in health care
services in general will appreciate.
We've also had some really good early wins
on the marketing side. I've had really good
traction,
with some of the I'd say the the
playbook that we generated in some of our
prior roles has ported over quite well into
orthodontics and pediatric dentistry. And then,
a couple of the things on the ops
side that have, that have worked well and
and have helped, I'd say, shape our our
leadership journey.
Got it. And could you maybe tell us
a little bit about your growth strategy at
Cliff Ridge Specialty Partners?
Yeah.
So I think we have, obviously, multiple different,
ideas for growth. On the top line side,
a lot of what we do is draw
from our experiences in Silicon Valley,
and work on things like marketing in a
very tangible way. So we have proprietary in
house marketing that focuses on SEO and having
best in class websites,
and generating leads to referrals.
We also spend a lot of time with
pricing analytics to make sure that we are
pricing amongst our competitors and and even better
than our competitors in some cases.
On the bottom line side, I think, like
Will mentioned, every clinic is is dealing with
staffing issues and and wage inflation.
But I think given our backgrounds, we've been
able to inject tangible
software solutions to help it, and that includes
centralized HR, centralized training,
hiring, recruiting.
We also spend a lot of time working
to make sure that the staff, gets time
back because we'll handle things like marketing, things
like finance, etcetera.
And that's really, you know, done well to
help us grow in in,
our early practices.
Got it. Thank you so much for walking
us through that. Now moving forward, what significant
challenges are dental and d DSO leaders facing,
and how are you addressing them at your
practice?
Yeah. I'm happy to take that one. I
would highlight,
3 that none of which I think should
be new to, the listeners. 1
is generally,
slowing growth in the industry. And I'm speaking
specifically
about
orthodontics
and pediatric dentistry, which I think this year
has been maybe a little bit slower
across the industry than than prior years.
And for us, that means focusing
on,
higher growth markets. So we're we're very focused
in the Tri State area, which I think
has been a great market for us.
And then I would say spending making sure
that our investment dollars are as high efficiency
as possible.
So making sure that the marketing initiatives that
we're going after and the investments that we're
making are, you know, we're doing the work
to make sure they're the best ones.
The second thing that I would say is
a generally constrained financing environment.
Obviously, people talk a lot about interest rates.
They've been high for quite some time.
For us, that means, the first couple of
deals we've done, we've over equitized,
to make sure that we are super comfortable
and have a, a very properly balanced cap
structure,
going into the next couple of years. And
then number 3, again, not a surprise to
anyone, is staffing. And I think for us,
that means setting great culture,
offering competitive compensation packages, and, and cross training
staff, all of which have helped to drive,
retention with an organization.
Absolutely. Well, I wanna thank you both for
your time today. But before I let you
go, could you share some essential qualities or
skills emerging leaders should cultivate in order to
be successful in this industry?
Sure. So I think for us, the thing
that has definitely helped us in in getting
this off the ground and, starting the company,
like I said, about a year and a
half ago, has been the, I think, entrepreneurial
mindset that both of us have. The openness
to technology,
innovation.
Our experience in single site health care has
really,
kind of allowed us to see what tech
actually works and what, you know, is is
nice to put on the website. But, you
know, sometimes, people aren't actually using. So,
having that openness to technology has has definitely
done well for us. I think at the
end of the day, it is a people
business.
So whether it's, you know, the receptionist, doctor,
back office,
staff member,
Success comes with, making sure that people are
incentivized correctly and happy,
and doing their best to, you know, help
grow the practice with us.
Absolutely. Well, Ananya and Will, I wanna thank
you once again for your time today and
for sharing your insights on the Becker's Healthcare
podcast. Thank you. Thanks so much for having
us.