Category Visionaries Khaled Boukadoum, Founder of Torch Dental: $49.5 Million Raised to Transform Dental Supply Management Through Digital Innovation
Torch Dental is revolutionizing the dental supply chain with a digital-first platform that's raised $49.5M in funding. The company is transforming how dental practices manage, order, and budget their supplies through a technology-driven approach that provides transparency and efficiency in an industry traditionally resistant to change. In this episode of Category Visionaries, Khaled Boukadoum shares insights from Torch Dental's journey from door-to-door sales in Manhattan to a nationwide platform serving dental practices across 48 states.
Topics Discussed:
- The origins of Torch Dental and identifying supply chain inefficiencies
- Evolution from field sales to digital-first acquisition
- Building and scaling marketing operations in a traditional industry
- Competing with established incumbents through technological innovation
- Geographic expansion strategy and future growth plans
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
- Start with Deep Problem Understanding: Khaled's journey began by deeply understanding the dental practice ecosystem through his sister's experience. As he explains, "She kind of came out of school after years and years of clinical training... and really isn't much training on [running a practice]." This firsthand exposure to the market need helped shape their solution.
- Embrace High-Touch Product Development: Early success came from direct customer interaction. As Khaled notes, "We actually went and started knocking on doors in New York... we'd sign up a few practices, and then we'd run back to our office and we'd actually start chatting with our CTO and kind of make adaptations or changes to the product." This rapid feedback loop was crucial for product-market fit.
- Demonstrate Clear ROI for Traditional Industries: When selling to technology-resistant industries, value proposition must be unmistakable. As Khaled shares, "You really have to make sure the value prop is super clear and the ROI to the customer is apparent and materially better for them in order for them to adopt the tech."
- Leverage Data for Personalized Sales: Torch built what they call "pre-torch analytics" which, as Khaled describes, allows them to "create a whole custom demo for them, showing them how much they could save on exactly the same products." This data-driven approach makes the value proposition concrete and personalized.
- Focus Marketing Efforts on Measurable Outcomes: On marketing strategy, Khaled emphasizes, "We've learned to be super metrics focused... to be really focused on kind of demand capture and demand gen opposed to more of kind of just general brand level marketing." This approach ensures marketing spend generates tangible results.
- Choose Strategic Expansion Channels: Understanding where your customers are is crucial. As Khaled explains, "We're focused exclusively on dental practices at this stage. So we know who our customer is, we know where they live, and we're just really targeted in our approach on how to communicate with that and where to communicate with them."
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