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Nadeem Kassam

Connect the Doc is a reputation management software and digital marketing agency that was built specifically for dental and orthodontic practices to do one thing – increase new patient leads. Our primary software include our award-winning review software, website chatbot, referral platform, and CRM for dentists. Our agency services include website design, search engine optimization, paid ads management on Google, and paid ads management on Facebook. Our goal is to reduce staff effort and involvement with their marketing so they can focus on providing their patients with the highest quality of care.

Tell us about yourself?

I don’t have any background or history in building tech companies. However, I was always a bit of an entrepreneur in high school and university. I came up with the original idea of Connect the Doc at my college graduation in 2010 and decided to get to work in 2011 to turn my idea into a reality. Since both of my parents are dentists, it was easy for me to learn more about the industry and create a solution that would help them and other dental practices in similar situations.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

Oh man… this is a hard one… I would tell myself and others so many things over the last decade (not just two years). Here’s a whole bunch of things, unfiltered and not in any order.

1) Surround yourself with winners, not losers. The people around you have a huge impact on your attitude and hustle.

2) Hire slow, fire fast. Building a loyal, competent team is extremely difficult. Keep your staff happy, give them benefits, and try to be a reasonable boss.

3) Focus on growing a real business, and don’t get caught up in vanity metrics – especially if you are in the tech space and are bootstrapping the company. If you have (or plan to get) venture funding, then it is a bit different, and you can focus on growth and revenue over profits.

4) Find a product market fit with an MVP before quitting your job and investing your life savings in your idea. Start your business as a side hustle, work your ass off, and if you’ve got a good idea and a decent product, it’ll catch fire.

5) Turn off your phone at night. It sounds like a weird one, but when you go home to be with your wife/kids/partner, etc., be present and stop working.

6) Have a set of values and live by them – with everything. Personally and professionally.

I’m sure there is a lot more, but this is what came to my mind.

What problem does your business solve?

Connect the Doc

We help dentists get more new patients so they can focus on providing their patients with exceptional care. Specifically, we help them get more Google reviews, increase website conversions, boost online visibility, and provide them with a variety of tools to improve their communication with prospective patients.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

Both my parents are dentists, and I have seen how challenging it is for them to be both the dentist and the business owner. Dentists go to school for dentistry and not business. Some of them are naturally very gifted in business. Others are not. The trickle-down effect of Connect the Doc and helping dentists get real, authentic patient reviews goes a long way. Prospective patients find a great dentist, staff members provide better service, and the dentist ultimately can focus on being the best dentist, which in turn should have some financial benefits to them and their families.

What is your magic sauce?

Connect the Doc

We provide the perfect blend of automation, customization, customer success, and results. Practices have one primary customer success manager, and that person will likely be their point of contact for the lifetime of their engagement with Connect the Doc. We also have no contracts, our review platform often has a 100 Google review guarantee, and we hold our team to very high standards so we can retain all of our clients.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

This is a secret :). But there are a lot of exciting developments in progress, and we are excited to roll them out soon.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

When we started in 2011, we were supposed to be an online appointment booking directory in Canada. The goal was to help prospective patients find dentists and doctors and allow them to book their appointments directly online. We booked a ton of appointments, but the business model did not work, and the idea was not scalable. So we pivoted in 2016 and started focusing on reputation management.

We also had a bit of a scare during COVID-19 but managed to recover very quickly, thanks to our amazing clients, who also weathered the storm.

How can people get involved?

Any dentist or orthodontic of medical practice can contact us at 1-800-910-1120 or visit www.joinconnectthedoc.com to learn more. We also are happy to help out non-medical practices through a different company that has a similar software.