Oliver Kharraz, co-founder and CEO of Zocdoc, discusses the high risk of shifting Zocdoc away from its original subscription business model after scaling.
Insight
Kharraz: Long doctor wait times stem from hidden supply, not shortages
“Most people thought it's normal that people have to wait 24 days to see a doctor because there's a doctor shortage. And our insight was really that, no, you know, doctors have last minute availability because of these last minute cancellations, no shows, resch…”
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Kharraz: Zocdoc analysis showed payback on many doctors took years, if ever
“And, you know, at some point during this time, you know, Nick Actually ran an analysis that showed that it would take us several years, if ever, for us to make our money back on, on many of the doctors we signed up.”
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Kharraz: Zocdoc facilitates one in five new patient-doctor relationships in NYC
“Yeah, you look, in New York, We facilitate roughly one in five new patient-doctor relationships in the entire city on ZocDoc.”
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Kharraz: Zocdoc reached near-zero churn and profitable growth after pricing shift
“Yeah, we, within a year, we had we finally had some incredible momentum. You know, it was really going better than we had expected in our wildest dreams. You know, our existing client churn went down to essentially zero. I mean, people still retire and move jo…”
Insight
Kharraz: The best companies are built around contrarian insights
“And also I wanted it to be based on a contrarian insight because I thought that all of the best companies have that at its core.”
Insight
Kharraz: Doctors and McKinsey consultants dismissed Zocdoc, but consumers liked it
“Oh, everyone. Everyone told us we're crazy, and we got a lot of negative feedback on the idea, too, right? People would say, this is, this just won't work, you know, I would never pick my doctor on the internet, or I already have a doctor or, you know, doctors…”