The Dental CEO Podcast

In this solo episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Scott Leune reads three real profit and loss statements line by line and shows you exactly where practice profit hides. Watch a "respectable" 1.8-million-dollar practice find roughly 160,000 dollars in EBITDA and nearly a million in sale value, and a two-practice owner uncover about 650,000 dollars a year in cash flow and 4.2 million in equity at sal...

A dentist got an unsolicited $9.8M offer to sell his practice — and on paper it looked incredible. So why is walking away the smarter move? Scott Leune breaks down the real offer line by line and runs the actual math, exposing the traps most dentists never see: the cash up front, the "rollover equity," the multi-year stay requirement that quietly erases years of owner profit, and the "hopium" of f...

After 33 years of marriage and 33 years practicing side by side in 700 square feet, Dr. Elisa Mello and Dr. Ramin Tabib could have coasted to the finish line. Instead, at 61, they bet on themselves again and moved into a 2,500 square foot space built around a brand they just trademarked: The Smile Code. Scott Leune sits down with the New York City couple to talk about holding the line on fee-for-s...

There is a lot of bad location advice in dentistry. A dentist goes on a podcast, says demographics do not matter because they opened in a weak market and made it work, and suddenly "build it and they'll come" sounds like a strategy. It is not. It is luck, and as Scott Leune puts it, a blind man can hit a home run, but that does not mean the rest of us should swing blindfolded. On this episode of t...

Two married dentists. One startup. 222 new patients in their first full month. On this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Dr. Scott Leune sits down with Drs. Alex Hill and Kristina Slavik of Hill Dental Studio to break down exactly how they built the demand, why they're already booked out two months, and what Scott says they need to do right now to handle the success before it crushes them.

In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Scott Leune is joined by Bill Donato, Founder of DentalMarketing.com, to break down why your website is no longer the biggest driver of new patient calls. As patient search habits change, Google My Business, local search visibility, reviews, hyperlocal content, and real-time search queries are becoming more important than ever. Scott and Bill explain what...

A single Instagram post from Dr. Scott Leune sparked major conversation across the dental world, raising a question many dentists are thinking but few are saying out loud: is becoming a dentist still financially worth it? In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Scott breaks down the post, the backlash, and the numbers behind the debate, including income, debt, delayed earning years, and why bus...

In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Dr. Scott Leune breaks down how dentistry is moving toward a new practice model built around automation, simplified staffing, patient hosts, presentation stations, and more efficient systems. He explains why traditional front office roles may become less necessary, how clinical team members could take on a more complete patient experience role, and how ow...

PPO plans are putting intense financial pressure on private dental practices through low reimbursements, high write-offs, stagnant fees, and rising operating costs.  In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Scott Leune sits down with Natalie Soda of PPO Profits to expose how shared networks and hidden fee schedules can force dentists to produce more while collecting less. They also discuss how p...

What does it actually look like to go straight from dental school into building your own practice? In this episode, Scott Leune sits down with Dr. Emily Magee just five weeks into opening her startup to walk through her journey from associate to owner. She shares how she made the decision to start early, secured financing, built out her office, and what the first few weeks of ownership really feel...

In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Scott Leune sits down with Kathryn Gaysinski, founder of DeStyle Design, to break down what it really takes to design a modern dental practice. From material selection and layout to balancing cost, function, and aesthetics, they explore how smart design decisions directly impact patient experience and long-term profitability. If you are planning a startup...

In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Dr. Scott Leune sits down with Dr. Kye Williams, founder of Dental House, to break down how he built a fee for service startup from scratch to over $3 million in annual collections in under three years. Kye shares the real drivers behind his success, from relentless marketing and phone conversion systems to delivering an elite patient experience and build...

Redo dentistry is one of the most overlooked, and expensive problems in private practice.  In this episode, Scott breaks down the uncomfortable reality most dentists face: when treatment fails, we absorb the cost, strain the patient relationship, and create unnecessary tension within the team, yet none of it is clearly tracked or accounted for. From failed implants and broken crowns to patients mo...

What if the key to working less and making more as a dentist isn’t opening more practices but focusing on the right procedure? In this episode, Dr. Justin Warcup shares how scaling too quickly nearly hurt his business, how he eliminated $300,000 in annual waste, and how focusing on one high value treatment increased cases from one per month to more than 13 a month while reducing his clinical hours...

In this episode of the Dental CEO Podcast, Dr. Scott Leune sits down with Tom Angeloni, National Sales Director at Bank of America, to discuss the current state of dental lending. They break down startup loan amounts, what banks evaluate when approving funding, and why quality acquisition opportunities are becoming harder to find. The conversation also explores how production history, cash flow, a...

Dentists talk about overhead, EBITDA, and take-home pay all the time—but most aren’t actually calculating them the same way. In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Scott Leune breaks down what these numbers really mean, how to calculate them correctly, and the benchmarks healthy practices should aim for. He explains the difference between true overhead and discretionary spending, how EBITDA sh...

What would happen if you treated your practice like you just bought it? In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Scott Leune breaks down a practical 90-day strategy to rapidly grow collections and profitability. He explains the key drivers of new patient flow, diagnosis, case acceptance, fees, and expenses and the specific actions that can quickly move the needle, from improving marketing and ph...

Is buying a dental practice really the safer move, or has the equation changed? In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Dr. Scott Leune revisits the buy versus startup debate and explains why his thinking has shifted in today’s market. He defines what a modern well executed startup actually looks like, including lower build costs, smart lease negotiations, optimized footprints, advanced cloud b...

Should your next move be a startup, an acquisition, or even a merger? In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Dr. Scott Leune explains why repeating the same growth strategy over and over can stall momentum and how a blended approach creates smarter expansion, easier funding, healthier cash flow, and stronger long term equity. He breaks down how bank underwriting changes after your first locati...

Most dental startups struggle not because of location or marketing, but because the weeks leading up to opening are rushed, unstructured, and poorly planned. In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Scott Leune breaks down exactly how to open a startup practice cleanly and confidently by focusing on hiring the right team, training with intention, building systems before day one, and choreographi...

Legacy dental IT systems were built for a different era—and continuing to rely on them is becoming more expensive, more disruptive, and more limiting every year. In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Scott Leune breaks down why server-based setups, patchwork software integrations, and outdated infrastructure are no longer sustainable in modern dentistry. The conversation explores how cloud-ba...

Dental imaging was never designed for today’s reality of AI, multi-location practices, cloud workflows, virtual teams, and data-driven decision-making—and it’s starting to show. In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Scott Leune sits down with Dustin Johnson, Co-Founder and CTO of SOTA Cloud, to explain why server-based, siloed imaging systems are quietly costing practices time, money, and gro...

Rising construction costs have made dental office design one of the biggest financial risk factors in a startup. In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Scott Leune sits down with Chris Raba, owner of Lean Dental Design, to explain how poor space planning, bloated layouts, and inefficient design decisions quietly drive up construction costs and leave dentists over budget before they ever open....

Eric Masson, Partner at Eskow Law Group, joins Scott Leune on The Dental CEO Podcast to break down the legal strategies dentists need when starting, buying, or growing a practice. Drawing from years of experience in healthcare transactions, Eric explains why lease agreements are often landlord-friendly, why legal counsel should be involved before signing a Letter of Intent, and how to properly str...

Most lawsuits in dentistry don’t start with patients—they start with employees. This episode breaks down how common HR missteps like unclear policies, poor documentation, and bad advice turn everyday staff issues into legal problems. A direct conversation on what actually puts dental practices at risk and how to avoid it.