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Founders, Investors Operators with Chase Hudson: Mike Baird – Founder of Accelerate Dental

Michael Baird serves as CEO and Founder of Accelerate Dental, a next gen Dental Partnership Organization which empowers dentists to be the primary beneficiaries of the financial upside on their practices. Prior to that, Michael served as CEO for Henry Schein One, the world leader in dental practice management software. Prior to Henry Schein One, he was founder and CEO of Avizia and served as President of Amwell after Avizia was acquired in 2018. Michael led Amwell to become the largest provider of telehealth technology and services in the country and a successful IPO in 2020. Additionally, Michael is the winner of the 2018 E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year award. Michael holds a BS degree in accounting from Brigham Young University, an MBA with distinction from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

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Intro

Episode summary

Mike Baird joins Chase Hudson on Founders, Investors, Operators to trace his path from Dell, McKinsey and Cisco, through founding telehealth company Avizia and leading Henry Schein One, to building Accelerate Dental as a dentist-owned alternative to the typical PE-backed DSO.

  • An “intrapreneur” turned founder. At Cisco, Mike took over a small telemedicine team that leadership didn’t want to grow. He negotiated to spin it out with product licenses, seed money and severance, and built it into Avizia. Avizia was acquired by Amwell in 2018, and Amwell went public in 2020.
  • Why dentistry. As CEO of Henry Schein One, Mike watched DSOs roll up practices. Before building Accelerate he interviewed about a hundred dentists and found that most of them didn’t like the consolidation trend.
  • Three structural differences. Accelerate is always a minority partner in each practice (average ownership around 38%). Its holding company is owned by dentists, not private equity. And its operating agreement bars management from ever selling the group (a “perpetual model”), so doctors can sell to other doctors instead of to the next investor.
  • Partnering on growth, not buying the past. Accelerate leaves the value a dentist has already built with the dentist and shares only in the growth. Deals usually involve an equity swap rather than a cash check, and Mike says the group carries no debt.
  • The results. Mike says partner practices usually double and doctors’ personal income rises about 50%, without doctors giving up their autonomy. Company-wide, Accelerate reports ~2x collections, ~2.2x equity value and ~50% income improvement, measured against each practice’s trailing 12 months (TTM) before partnership. The goal is “Option C”: a path where new and established dentists can still own practices.

Key quotes from Mike Baird

“The first is that we are always going to be a minority partner in the practice.”

“We basically say, ‘What’s your value today? We don’t want to take that from you at all. We’re only going to participate in the growth.’”

“It changes the relationship because we’re a coach and a mentor and a peer, not a manager.”

“Because we exist, there will be a different option. We’ve created ‘Option C.’”

Related: Our services: how Accelerate Dental supports partner practices.

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