Q 1. Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include what your business is all about, in which city you are located and if you have offices in multiple locations/ cities.
Ans: DocResponse is an all-in-one patient engagement solution. Our tool provides appointment scheduling, patient intake, forms on demand, telehealth and reputation management. To explain further, our solution’s base product is our patient intake solution which allows patients to enter their demographics information, medical histories, driver’s license and insurance, pay any outstanding balances or co-pays and assist with completing the clinical note for the physician. All this data is captured prior to the office visit to make the visit much more efficient for the patient, by saving them approximately 16 minutes per visit, and saving the provider and nurse documentation time approximately 11 minutes per patient visit. Our corporate office is in Houston, Texas but we have team members throughout the US.
Q 2. Kindly give us a brief description about yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements).
Ans: I am an orthopedic surgeon. I attended UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and graduated in 1996 with an MD degree. I then completed my residency in Orthopedic Surgery at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia in 2001 and completed a fellowship in Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in 2002.
After my fellowship, I joined Texas Orthopedic and Sports Medicine in 2002, ascending to managing partner in 2006 at the orthopedic practice. During my tenure as managing partner, I led the increase in size and revenue of the orthopedic practice; as managing partner, I helped increase revenue by 100%, purchased and developed key real estate, and led the construction of a 36,000 square-foot professional building and ambulatory surgical center.
In the healthcare software space, I was seed investor in 2012 of a novel healthcare appointment solution, HealthPost, which was acquired by the Advisory Board in 2014.
Q 3. What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (to make significant changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come about?
Ans: I initially started DocResponse as a diagnostic/clinical decision support solution. The reason for this development was my experience in my orthopedic clinic where I had patients come into my office in 2014 and 2015 self-diagnosing themselves after having used WebMD. This was in the early days of diagnostic solutions such as WebMD, Mayo Clinic’s, Harvard’s diagnostic tool among others. Often patients had the wrong diagnosis. I would attain their history and then examine them. After my examination, in the majority of cases, the patient provided me the incorrect assessment and diagnosis. At that time, I thought it was incumbent upon me as a medical doctor and orthopedic surgeon to provide a solution that provides better accuracy for patients to use. As the years passed, we pivoted our solution to become a patient engagement/patient intake solution along with clinical decision support. I felt it was important to add patient intake and appointment scheduling in order to follow the patient visit from inception, at appointment scheduling, to the end, at reputation management.
Q 4. What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
Ans: Having a great idea is only 10% of being successful, in my opinion. Being able to take the appropriate steps to execute and have that idea come to life is what differentiates successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful ones. Furthermore, patience will increase the likelihood of success. Last, being able to adjust and be fluid with what is occurring in the space is very important for success. For example, when COVID hit in 2020 we had to answer the call of what clients wanted which was telehealth and patient text alerts for social distancing. At that time, I had our development team quickly build these two solutions in 6 weeks so they would be available for our current clients and new clients.
Q 5. What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
Ans: Patience, perseverance and being driven.
Q 6. How many hours do you work a day on average?
Ans: 14 hours
Q 7. To what do you most attribute your success?
Ans: Hard work, executing, taking risk and trusting that what is best for me will occur.
Q 8. How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
Ans: Up until recently, we relied on direct marketing through targeted EHR marketplaces, email campaigns, cold calling as well as booth sponsorships. We are now beginning to drive our SEO and Google ads as we have now expanded into new markets. As of now, the most successful form of marketing has been direct or targeted marketing of EHR marketplaces. We will know more about the success of SEO and Google ads in the coming months.
Q 9. Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
Ans: Most of our funding has been bootstrapped by me. We also have had 2 seed rounds with family and close colleagues of mine which have invested. The route I have taken is not the typical route of entrepreneurs where they look for investors early on in order to get their idea off the ground. We are currently looking for strategic investors that can assist us with growth.
Q 10. What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
Ans: Build a product that clients want and need. Be patient and persevere through the hard times and put faith that the best outcome for me and my company will occur at the appropriate time.
Q 11. Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
Ans: I would like to see our business exit within the next 5 to 10 years but still be an integral part of the larger acquirer. It would be my dream to have my company live on for many years to come.
Q 12. Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
Ans: I admire how Apple had good times, very bad times and then good times again because Steve Jobs and his team were able to be patient and persevere. They were also able to be fluid and pivot into a new category with mobile phones which really pushed their success to dizzying heights.
Q 13. How important have good employees been to your success?
Ans: Very important.In my opinion, it is important to have a core group of employees and executive leadership that will go through a wall to be successful with you. Building a successful company requires a strong team that is trustworthy and will go through any lengths to achieve success.
Q 14. How long do you stick with an idea before giving up?
Ans: It depends on how big the idea is. If it is for a new product in a new space that’s been researched and highly likely to be successful, I will put 3-5 years into the idea to make it successful. If it’s a smaller product or project as a potential add on to a base product that is already available, I will normally give it 1-2 years.
Q 15. What motivates you?
Ans: I am a goal oriented, so I need to have achievements in order to feel successful. I also gravitate toward difficult achievements because a successful outcome for these is much more gratifying.
Q 16. What are your ideals?
Ans: Honesty, patience, perseverance and faith.
Q 17. How do you generate new ideas?
Ans: I generate new ideas from listening to clients or potential clients as well as quiet introspection.
Q 18. How do you define success?
Ans: There are different types of success in my opinion. There is success which comes with the achievement of goals that were set out. There is also success when it comes to financially being able to achieve the revenue or exit one aimed for.
Q 19. How do you build a successful customer base?
Ans: Providing a product that is able to help the client that is reliable and a team that is responsive to the needs of the client.
Q 20. What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
Ans: The ability to be independent and take risk in order to achieve the goals that were set out. I enjoy being the decisionmaker.
Q 21. What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
Ans: Being able to start a business from nothing and build it to be a business that’s recognized in the healthcare software space as one of the best in class.
Q 22. What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
Ans: Entrepreneurs will work to achieve a goal no matter the time expended or place. Those who work for someone else are more content to punch in and punch out and have allotted free time where they can tend to their personal needs.
Q 23. What kind of culture exists in your organization? How did you establish this tone and why did you institute this particular type of culture?
Ans: We have a culture of honesty, integrity, working hard and having fun. I established this by leading by example. I think honesty and integrity are very important as a character. These cannot be taught but hard work and having fun can be taught. I have always believed in working hard and then having fun to let off some stress.
Q 24. In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur.
Ans: Exciting
Q 25. If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
Ans: I would have put more time into my software company in its earlier stages.
Q 26. How has being an entrepreneur affected your family life?
Ans: It has taken time away from my family but I am fortunate to have a spouse who is supportive of my dreams and now children who respect and appreciate my hard work and dedication.
Q 27. What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage fear?
Ans: Failure of the company. I keep trying to better the company to reduce that risk.
Q 28. How did you decide on the location for your business?
Ans: I just started the company where my family and I live. I did not make an effort to change the location of the business. I feel that in today’s interactive world, a software company can be set up at any location, but best to be near a large enough city that has access to an airport for travel.
Q 29. Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
Ans: I do not think there is a formula per se, but I do believe that persistence and patience will eventually bear fruit.
Q 30. Who has been your greatest inspiration?
Ans: My father. He had to drop out of school at the age of 11 to care for his mother and siblings after his father passed away. He was able to become successful in business and was able to provide for my mother and my 4 siblings. We had a comfortable lifestyle growing up and all my siblings went on to professional schools becoming either attorneys or doctors. He made it a point that we would all achieve higher education since he was not afforded that opportunity.
Q 31. What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made?
Ans: Investing in a stem cell company where I knew the product was excellent but the management was of concern. I tried to assist the management of the business by attaining a board seat but because I did not have enough leverage to exert on the founding member, the company failed.
Q 32. How can you prevent mistakes or do damage control?
Ans: There’s no way to prevent a mistake, but being patient with making a decision and calculating for an exit or solution prior to a possible mistake is important. Being able to recover from a mistake is paramount.
Q 33. What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
Ans: Travel around the world.
Q 34. What makes you happy?
Ans: Spending time with my family.
Q 35. What sacrifices have you had to make to be a successful entrepreneur?
Ans: Financial sacrifices, and sacrificing time from my family.
Company Detail:
Company : DocResponse,Inc
Address : 21175 TOMBALL PARKWAY #487
City : HOUSTON
State : TX
Zip : 77070-1655
Phone : (832)770-7077
Email : sales@docresponse.com