Meet the MATTER Startup That Wants to Be the Amazon for Healthcare Supplies

Brothers Jacob and Scott Drucker noticed a major problem in the dental supply market when Scott graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s dental school in 2013. Dentists were purchasing their supplies at high prices from vendors they’ve been using for years, and opting not to spend the time scouring the web for deals.

So Jacob and Scott set out to create a platform for buying and selling dental supplies that made it easier for dentists to find the items they needed at a range of prices from multiple vendors. And this June Supply Clinic was born, creating a double sided marketplace for sellers to list supplies and dentists to find items at a lower cost. The company, which is headquartered at Chicago HealthTech incubator MATTER, has been in beta for three months as it continues to add customers and perfect the platform.

“Right now, dentists are overpaying by 30-40% for the supplies that they are buying,” CEO Jacob Drucker said. “We’ve spoken with hundreds of dentists and they’re generally unhappy about the way the market is, but they can’t really find any good alternatives because they buy from a few of the big players.”

Supply Clinic aims to give those smaller sellers direct access to dentists, and so far the company has signed close to 50 vendors who plan to sell on the platform. The startup has seen just over 50 customers purchase supplies so far, a number Drucker expects to quickly rise now that the company has established a larger pool of vendors.

The longterm goal for Supply Clinic, Drucker says, is to be a marketplace for all kinds of healthcare products, not just dental supplies. And a key feature the company plans to build is a reoccurring purchase function for frequently used supplies like gloves and masks for a more consistent stream of revenue.

Supply Clinic joined MATTER when the incubator opened earlier this year, and Drucker said the program has provided him the resources and connections to get his company off the ground.

“There’s a lot of support here for whatever you need,” he said. “And if you can’t find the person who has the answer, [MATTER] will put you in touch with someone who has the answer.”

A Harvard graduate and recent transplant to Chicago, Drucker said the Chicago tech community has been the perfect place to launch Supply Clinic.

“One thing I really like about the Chicago tech scene is it’s growing, and growing quickly,” he said. “But it’s still at the size where you can get access to the people that you need, and everyone’s willing to help each other out.”

Read the article at ChicagoInno

Images via Supply Clinic