E03 - Dr. Dustin Haupt: If I Knew Then, I May Not Have Done It

Dr. Dustin Haupt is a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon and co-founder of AVOS Dental Specialists, a multi-specialty practice in Arvada, Colorado. After a Navy scholarship, a four-year surgical residency, and four years of active duty, he built a ground-up oral surgery, endo, and perio practice in 2020, opened it during COVID, and grew it to five doctors and 20 team members. He walks through what he got right, what he got wrong, and the pearls he now gives every doctor who asks: why he'd take the military scholarship again, the GC mistake that had him teaching himself to read construction documents, why going out of network on day one was a disaster for a referral-based specialist, the private equity offers he turned down, the office manager hire that almost cost him his team, and the profitability number he actually runs the practice on. In this episode 00:00 Cold open 00:25 Who Dustin is and the Navy path to ownership 06:32 Why he'd do the military scholarship again 10:28 Deciding to own instead of being a W-2 11:26 Ground-up build with Dan Gleissner and the land nobody wanted 13:21 The GC mistake and the construction manager who paid for himself 3x 16:43 Pearls and pitfalls: invest in yourself, your practice, your team 17:28 The one piece of equipment every specialist startup needs 19:23 Leading a team after the Navy 21:49 Opening during COVID and the referral problem 23:46 Out of network on day one: "an absolute disaster" 26:46 Adding perio and the two-client mindset 29:49 80% growth, HR headaches, and walking away from private equity 31:47 The office manager hire that almost broke the team 34:44 Hire slow, fire quickly 35:15 Why he's on his third coach and why every owner needs one 38:41 The trap of being told to do everything 40:39 Production versus profitability, and his target margin 42:33 Multi-specialty is the future 43:15 Grow or die Connect with Dustin AVOS Dental Specialists, Arvada, CO  avosds.com  Instagram: @avos.dental.specialists  Email: [email protected] Dental Ownership Collective