Taking good care of your teeth is easier said than done. Whether you have reliable dental insurance or not, the path to a straight smile can be an expensive and grueling process. What if there’s a team implementing a seamless and affordable direct-to-consumer experience that’s quickly changing the future of oral healthcare? Oh and it also got Kerry Washington’s seal of approval and judging by her smile, you know it has to be good.
This is the beauty of byte, a startup founded by innovative entrepreneurs Blake Johnson and Scott Cohen. After speaking to dentists and orthodontists, the duo determined there had to be a more convenient and cost-effective way to bring advanced dental practices into the comfort of people’s homes. As soon as the coronavirus pandemic hit, their instincts were right and the world was in need of remote dental health assistance. In addition to rallying the brand’s California and Oklahoma headquarters to making and donating PPE along with other medical parts, they didn’t hesitate to open up byte’s tele-dentistry platform. “We immediately opened up our nationwide dental network for free to the entire country and not just byte customers,” Cohen told Forbes. “This allowed anyone with a dental concern to leverage our platform and get an immediate response.”
The brand has helped thousands of customers have better and faster dental care like never before. In addition to their virtual platform, byte sells at-home impression kits that is then given to a local orthodontist, who designs a personalized treatment plan. Once you’re all set with the plan, the same doctor keeps track of your progress and continues to offer you all the digital help on your journey to a brighter smile. Read through Cohen’s interview alongside President Neeraj Gunsagar below for a behind-the-scenes look into the operation.
Isis Briones: Can you elaborate on you and your partner’s backgrounds? What made you both decide to launch byte?
Scott Cohen: “I cofounded the business with Blake Johnson. We have been serial entrepreneurs throughout our careers mainly focused on digital marketing and finance. We got together a couple of years ago with a local orthodontist who mentioned that technology and convenience would be greatly integrated with his practice over the coming years.
As a result, we decided to research direct-to-consumer teeth aligners as a complimentary offering to dental practices. After realizing there was a big opportunity to create a differentiated direct-to-consumer experience coupled with a powerful B2B offering, we decided to start byte. The company is currently focusing on the direct-to-consumer side of the business, but have recently launched bytePro which works side-by-side with dentists and orthodontists.”
IB: Can you tell us more about how the brand was able to cope and readjust to the pandemic?
Neeraj Gunsagar: “Our company’s core mission is around access and affordability. It’s become evident that most orthodontic related services are focused only on higher-income consumers. That’s a problem. Everyone should have the right to rediscover their smile, and furthermore, their confidence. Our mission is to bridge that gap not only through our byte aligner offering, but also through our byteCares program that has a goal of improving 10,000 smiles by 2022.
During the pandemic, we were one of the first companies in the US to realize there would not only be a shortage of PPE, but also limited access to dental care professionals during the quarantine. In response, we decided to provide free access to our teledentistry platform and we added capacity at both our Oklahoma and California facilities to create PPE along with medical parts to healthcare providers and grocery workers.”
IB: Where do you see byte in 10 years?
NG: “We’re still in the early innings of what we believe will be a growing movement towards greater consumer access in many industries. Within dental/oral care, we believe we will be the largest consumer orthodontic brand in the world. Our goal is to be a global brand helping people all over the world regain their smile and confidence.”
IB: How did the partnership with Kerry Washington come about and why did the brand choose to work with her?
SC: After spending a year together making sure that byte’s mission and her values aligned, we both decided it was a perfect fit. We jointly share the goal of helping people regain their smile through better access to at-home oral care.
We chose Kerry because her passion and voice for our mission was so powerful. We also wanted a true partner that could help form our long-term creative strategy and help make oral care accessible worldwide. Kerry signed up for all of that and has been extremely value-added to us as we scaled byte over the last year.”
IB: What can customers expect next? Is byte thinking of working with another celebrity ambassadors?
SC: “Consumers can expect byte to continue innovating on our core product offering and overall consumer experience. We will be investing more in tele-dentistry and working more with the dental industry to continue bridging the gap between underserved communities and oral care professionals.
We are always happy to work with like-minded celebrities that believe in our core mission of access and affordability.”
