NextLevel Doctors Group is setting itself apart from other DSOs by helping every dentist partner with a DSO and walking them through every step of the process.
NextLevel Founder Gary Kadi recently spoke with Becker's to discuss the company's growth so far since its launch in 2023, its goals for the rest of 2024 and its strategies for growth.
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What are NextLevel's top priorities for the rest of 2024?
Gary Kadi: Priority number one is interviewing bankers for potential recapitalization as soon as early 2025. Number two is we built an incubator program for mid to late adopters because we're dealing with more risk-averse, methodical thinkers who now know it's safe enough to sell, but they're still in a lifestyle business and everything needs a step-by-step process.
So, we created a 90-Day Practice Sale System where we walk the risk-adversed seller through a detailed checklist and get them prepared for sale. The primary purpose of this is really to have new sellers control their financial legacy. There are three levers we go to work on. Lever one is closing the gaps between actual and ideal numbers a buyer looks for. We help the seller decide what to do, when to do it and how to do it. Lever two is to understand your options and lever three is where we walk the seller through the transaction before it happens to ensure ease and optimization of value.
There are nine knobs we turn for each of those things. So in closing gaps, we move them from a collections mindset to an EBITDA mindset. We get them to maximize their profitability and we get their books set up so their personal expenses are "below the line," so the QofE goes quicker. Most doctors don't know how long they're going to practice for. They don't know when they want to transact, so we help them decide their transaction date based upon the input from the owner and spouse. We help them decide how long they're going to stay on for and we help them decide what they minimally want to get for their practice. We set those benchmarks and we educate them on what's possible. Then we go into lever three, where we package their practice for sale, set up their books, and then they actually transact and we hand-hold them through the entire process. Nobody is doing this that we know of, and this is what's really innovative in the work we're doing.
This is why we're attracting a lot of dentists right now. [Dentists] say to us, "The M&A guys are treating us like a pack of gum. This is our life's work, and they're giving us all of these acronyms about LOE, LOI and QofE, and we've never heard these before. So we need somebody who's an advocate for us." So we've taken a real advocacy position with this mid to late adopter.
The other thing we've done is we created a vision, purpose and values for the future because we've moved from a transactional position to a transformational position. This is going to impact generational wealth and the family tree of the dentist. So we have a heart-centered, people-first position. Our vision is to leave dentistry better than we found it. Our purpose is to enhance the quality of people's lives, starting with our own. And our values are that we're enhancing the standard of care for the whole of our industry. We're increasing the standard of self-care, and we're like-minded individuals making the people around us better. The fourth value is attracting top talent, not just associates but dental team members. So we're really working on being a stand for something, and not just transacting.
Q: How many dentists has NextLevel worked with so far?
GK: We've transacted with just about 100 practices, and we have over 100 in our pipeline right now. The big problem is that a lot of them are not qualified with the new value for money raising the qualifications from buyers. Our philosophy is that we don't necessarily have to find people who are qualified. We help create practices to be qualified. That makes our work unique. If you want to sell your practice, you won't be left behind. You may have to do some work, but our philosophy is no man or woman left behind.
Q: What strategies are in place to continue growing that network?
GK: We have a residency at Dental Economics, where I'm being interviewed monthly by the editor. I have a monthly column in Dental Economics and three other publications. We believe that when people know better, they do better. When you put good information and good education out, they're attracted to you to help them accomplish what they're looking to accomplish if they're aligned in values.
We also have a quarterly DSO 3.0 webinar that walks people from start to finish on how to think about selling their practice, and then what happens when you actually choose to sell it and how your life will turn out. We have people in our group who deliver the course, so it's peer-to-peer education, and this system has allowed us to attract a lot of people. We're also marketing to DSOs that have people who are not qualified, and we help them get back to their DSOs. We put them through our 90-Day Practice Sale System and then we send them back. We don't offer them our DSO, we send them back to their DSO because people are spending a lot of time, energy and money on attracting clients, but they're not qualified. So we put them through our 90-Day Practice Sale System process and send them back ready to go.