Currently, the North American dental industry is plagued with inefficient procurement technologies and practices. While the procurement process, which is often based on manual entry and approvals, forms, paper catalogs, numerous online portals, invoices, purchase orders, and snail mail, has grown in complexity, systems have not adapted to keep up. In fact, manual data entry is the chief complaint of both the practices and suppliers with some still using email, phone calls, and even fax machines to place orders.

This lack of efficiency in the procurement process, coupled with a high rate of human error, is costing DSOs and their dental practices across the U.S. countless hours and dollars. Both suppliers and dental organizations have been challenged in solving this problem in an efficient and cost-effective way.

Recognizing the need for a remedy to this problem CureMint, founded by Brandon McCarty (CEO) and Christopher Rathgeb (CTO), automates the dental procurement process and has developed the first and only all-in-one marketplace and spend management software designed specifically for the unique needs of the dental industry.

CureMint’s purpose is to bring relief to the dental industry’s extremely fragmented and painful procurement process. By providing an intuitive ordering experience, increased spend visibility, and holistic office management, CureMint empowers dental organizations to realize streamlined operations and untapped profitability.

With a rapidly growing customer base, increasing from 10 to over 120 in one year, CureMint aims to be the single solution meeting the increasing demands of dental procurement.

“CureMint was founded with a purpose to help the lives of all we touch. Our core competency is in building delightful technical solutions to make our end users’ jobs easier and more productive. Now more than ever, it is important we execute on this purpose as our overworked healthcare professionals are trying desperately to get the supplies, they need to do their jobs. CureMint is thrilled to not only take on the challenge of dental procurement but support the local workforce and economy. ” – Brandon McCarty, CureMint CEO and Cofounder

The dental procurement platform just announced the company has successfully raised its series seed financing round totaling $1,250,000. The funds were raised with support from Raleigh-based venture capital firm Cofounders Capital. CureMint is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina’s leading start-up hub and workspace, the American Underground and plans to start hiring immediately.

“Over the past four months, we have talked to all of the stakeholders in Dental Support Organizations that CureMint is serving. Brandon and his team focused on the user experience first to ensure adoption, which is what great companies do,” states Tim McLoughlin, Partner, Cofounders Capital. “When everyone in the organization loves using the software, it leads to frictionless onboarding and rapid standardization and ROI for ownership. That combination made it an easy decision to invest.”

Group Dentistry Now recently interviewed Brandon McCarty, Co-founder & CEO of CureMint, Inc.:

GDN: Congratulations. What is CureMint going to do with this funding?
Brandon McCarty: Move faster in our goal to bring powerful procurement to the dental industry and, more importantly, make it accessible to any sized organization. Our priority has always been to ensure that we can delight every customer we have. We will use the funds to advance product development, hire local engineering and operational roles, and scale the company’s highly competitive go-to-market strategy. In addition to this, obviously we want to make sure the industry knows about us, so getting the word out is also a priority.

GDN: Tell us about the CureMint platform?
Brandon McCarty: CureMint is a play on words for Procurement. Procurement is basically an internal supply chain. From supplies to equipment, we believe everything your organization needs to serve your patients should live in one place. There are significant advantages of having one hub for your procurement process, but the driving value is lower operational costs. CureMint believes the best way to drive down costs is through efficiency and scalable processes that create predictable behavior. That’s what CureMint is about.

GDN: What type of data can a group practice glean from CureMint?
Brandon McCarty: Since CureMint tracks all of your spending in real-time at an MFG item level, you have access to just about anything you can think of. The most common applications of CureMint include budgeting benchmarks and approval rules, formulary compliance, 80/20 pareto reports, and RFP comparisons. This data will give any office a full picture from all suppliers in one place.

GDN: Why is this platform different from a distributor’s ordering platform?
Brandon McCarty: I think it really boils down to the purpose of each platform, with neither being wrong or right. The core purpose of a supplier’s ordering platform is to make it easier for you to buy from them. In contrast, CureMint’s purpose is to provide you full visibility and control across your entire procurement process regardless of the supplier.

GDN: What type of trends are you seeing in regard to procurement in the emerging group and DSO space?
Brandon McCarty: We are definitely seeing a movement towards a demand for real-time actionable data and visibility. The industry is evolving, and so is the leadership and business acumen. Cleary knowing what is going on at your organization is a foundational principle. The industry is looking for solutions to solve business intelligence roadblocks. I think this is an area that the dental industry has/is really struggling with.

GDN: Will the COVID19 crisis impact dental group practice purchasing? If so how?
Brandon McCarty: There has been a clear and significant downturn in ordering since so many had to close their doors. I think right now, everyone is trying to understand the guidelines on how to make the patient experience as safe as possible. So I see a surge around PPE and other equipment that correlates to this change. I also see a new focus on the importance of scalable and replicable processes. There were so many layoffs and furloughs of office staff which will undoubtedly affect the continuity of the ordering processes in the office.

GDN: Tell us what the future looks like for CureMint?
Brandon McCarty: Phase one of CureMint has been focused on creating a world where the dental organization has full control of its purchasers’ experience, data, spend, and formularies in one single solution. The future will be focused on connecting the dental supply chain together to create more efficiency and ultimately lower costs for everyone. Features like automated invoicing and payments, inventory control, and supplier source management will provide the unity, predictability, and automation the industry desperately needs.

GDN: What does the future of procurement in the dental industry look like?
Brandon McCarty: I see a transition away from “shopping” for supplies to automated execution of a supply chain strategy. To clarify, procurement is a simple math equation. What do I need to serve my patients? Do I have it on hand or do we need to order more? The future of dental procurement is technology answering these questions and automating the execution with AI and machine learning. Ultimately, this style of automation will provide offices with peace of mind knowing they always have what they need from the suppliers they prefer to use, every time. Ultimately it will free up the team’s time so they can focus on patient care and provide predictable and scalable processes for the leadership teams.

Read more about the CureMint platform in this GDN article – Disruptive Procurement Platform Cures the Chief Complaint of DSO Practices and Suppliers

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