Dr. Lou Shuman describes how DIA’s business model, diverse industry veteran leadership, and strategic partnerships sets them apart from traditional venture capital groups and benefits its stakeholders.
Insights Into Clinical and Management Technologies With DIA
Dental Support Organizations (DSOs) address the challenges of supporting multiple dental practices by offering their affiliated practitioners the tools to deliver the best patient care. Solo practitioners, small group practices, and specialists all need to know which technologies can boost growth, and there are a surprising number of options for them to choose from. They also need educational opportunities to continue thriving and increasing treatment options and outcomes. Cellerant Consulting Group and Dental Innovation Alliance (DIA) have a strategic partnership that reflects a shared vision to improve dentistry through cutting-edge innovation.
What is DIA?
DIA is a uniquely designed venture capital firm comprised of a diverse group of industry veterans, clinicians, technologists, large global OEMs, dental distributors, dental associations and other investors. Doug Brown, Co-founder and Managing Partner of DIA explained, “DIA’s industry background and connections leverage its combined power to benefit its stakeholders. We are working together to support a pool of companies with great ideas. When they have grown out of the venture phase into the growth phase, we assist them in achieving successful exits to the next stage.” Thomas Sharpe, Co-Founder and Managing Partner added, “DIA is different from traditional venture capital endeavors. We’re bringing money, market access, and mentorship to these companies, and that is our unique edge.”
DIA’s distinctive business model has led them to describe the alliance as “venture capital reimagined.” They will invest in about 25 early-stage companies that fit within 45 pre-determined technology vector categories. By focusing on a single outstanding company within a specific vector, DIA can be more discerning and support companies in a more targeted way.
“It’s an overwhelming task for any dentist or dental organization to keep up with all the innovation coming out in dentistry,” says Brown. “We do that thorough research and analysis. We know how important efficiency is to a DSO and other practice modalities. Practices need technologies to do more with less in terms of people and resources. We consider ourselves a repository of information on technologies that will enable practice growth and great dentistry.”
Leadership Grounded in DSOs
Doug Brown and Thomas Sharpe have years of experience and insights into dental practice needs and pain points. Brown has been in the dental industry for 30 years, starting with his stint as CEO of a North Carolina-based, 20-practice group across the southeast in the late 1990s. He was then asked to lead a larger combined group practice after merging with Ohio-based Sears Family Dental. Later, that DSO also combined with Texas-based Dental One Partners. Throughout this time, Brown became influential in the growing success of this combination of different models—branded and unbranded practices—during a time when dental practices started consolidating into DSOs.
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Around 2000, Brown put together a group of industry leaders to share best practices. That study group morphed into the Association of Dental Support Organizations (ADSO), which is the largest member-directed association today. He became president of ADSO and has held many other leadership positions since that time.
Continuing in his dental journey, in 2011, Brown joined Affordable Care as CEO and later Vice Chairman, through 2021. After meeting Sharpe, they both served as vice chairmen at Affordable Care, while striking up a friendship along the way.
With common interests and goals, they began co-investing in early-stage technology companies and recognized an opportunity to fund cutting-edge companies, but also to get their colleagues involved though SPVs (special purpose vehicles). In October 2022, they launched DIA and, since then, have invested in over a dozen prime assets, all involved in dental technology.
Thomas Sharpe graduated from Vanderbilt University with a BA and MBA, and a JD from Oklahoma College of Law. After graduating from law school, he worked with a group that grew to 52 offices called DDS, an Oklahoma-based DSO business that eventually joined forces with Affordable Care in 2019. With an interest in government service, Sharpe served as a board member appointed by the head of the Senate in Oklahoma that oversaw Medicaid (OHCA). At Vanderbilt, he is active in the Innovation Investment Committee, investing university dollars in innovative entrepreneurs evolving from the Vanderbilt ecosystem. He explained, “Inside that world, I saw how people’s health is inextricably linked to dental care. DIA is based on some of the same principles.”
In August 2021, after Affordable was sold to Harvest Partners, Brown and Sharpe began concentrating on developing the DIA model. Sharpe noted, “We now have a robust pipeline of prospective companies, and it’s growing.” Over 1,100 early-stage dental companies seeking capital have already contacted DIA, with an additional 40 companies entering the pipeline every month.
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DIA’s Innovators and Partners
Besides dental clinical technologies such as Odne, Perceptive, and Alta Smiles, DIA’s companies also focus on performance improvement, offering strategies for workforce management and retention (Cloud Dentistry), operational efficiency (Uptime Health, tuuthfairy, SOTA Cloud), and increased case acceptance (Pearl AI, Relu, Dentognostics).
DIA is also on the forefront of AI innovation. Pearl AI raised $58 million in Series B funding in July 2024, marking the largest investment ever in dental artificial intelligence.
All these new opportunities are catching the eyes of DIA’s expanding stakeholder base. DIA works closely with Women in DSO to support women’s entrepreneurship in the dental industry. In November, DIA launched the Entrepreneurship Corner, a partnership between Women in DSO and DIA featuring self-paced modules on essential topics like opportunity identification, capital raising, and exit strategies. Kate Orr, a Senior Manager on DIA’s team, serves on Women in DSO’s Advisory Board.
The Florida Dental Association (FDA) also joined DIA as a Charter Association Partner. Their announcement in October 2024 noted that the partnership aligns with the association’s role to manage the business side of dentistry and ensure that their members have the tools, resources, and support to focus on patient care. The FDA allows its members to stay focused on clinical dentistry by handling these business needs.
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Future Prospects
An exciting and evolving group launched by DIA is the InnoCircle, which brings together some of the top minds in the dental community to share best practices and knowledge on emerging technologies. “That circle of professionals includes people from DSOs, group practices, and solo practices,” says Sharpe. Through the InnoCircle, companies can introduce their novel concepts so that DSOs and non-affiliated dentists can understand the landscape of relevant innovations. In the future, this will lead to members of the InnoCircle getting preferred pricing on their new technologies. Membership in the InnoCircle provides members with unmatched research on the most important trends impacting the future of the dental industry.
Cellerant’s deep experience in growing early-stage companies and DIA’s reimagined venture capital model combine to allow more DSOs and dental professionals access to transformative tools and resources that elevate patient care across the board.
More from the Newsletter
Lou Shuman, DMD, CAGS, the CEO of Cellerant Consulting Group, is known for bringing new technologies into dentistry from all over the world. He is also Co-founder of LightForce Orthodontics, the first company to create a fully customized 3D-printed ceramic orthodontic bracket, and recently launched DSO Technology Solutions providing valuable technologies to DSOs.
Cellerant Consulting Group
Cellerant Consulting is a highly acclaimed full-service boutique consulting firm for dental companies from early stage to well-established companies that seek to accelerate their growth.
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