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YOU SHOULD KNOW
YOU SHOULD KNOW
ALEX FENKELL SMILEDIRECTCLUB
Even by the high standards of Nashville’s health care scene, the rise of SmileDirectClub is something else. Since formally launching in May, the marketer of teeth aligners for people with minor spacing or crowding issues has hired 150 people, signed a lease for an entire floor of downtown’s Bank of America Plaza and received an investment from a blue-chip industry name that values it at $275 million. Alex Fenkell and his co-founders — who include former Diabetes Care Club leader Doug Hudson, now the company’s CEO — founded SmileDirectClub to take advantage of the rise of 3D printing and telehealth. SmileDirectClub’s model takes a treatment that often requires numerous office visits and has a price tag of up to $8,000 down to a simpler process that costs $1,500 and is marketed at $99 per month. Patients make impressions of their teeth at home using a $95 toolkit and submit their results to licensed dental professionals. The company’s lab then makes an aligner for a treatment that on average lasts just five months. The company’s rapid growth — its site now attracts about 500,000 unique visitors per month — has attracted the attention of Align Technology, the $1 billion maker of Invisalign products and dental scanners. In July, Align and SmileDirectClub signed a wide-ranging deal that has made the Californiabased company SmileDirectClub’s exclusive thirdparty supplier of aligners. Align also has committed to a loan of up to $15 million and invested nearly $47 million to take a 17 percent stake in SmileDirectClub. There’s much more to come. In October, Fenkell helped open his team’s first retail store, in New York City’s West Village. Others might follow to help raise consumer awareness and expand delivery methods. “It’s been a really fun two years to this point,” Fenkell says. “But we have a long way to go.” Daniel Meigs
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SPRING 2016
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NASHVILLEPOST.COM
11/9/16 3:48 PM