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The Mistake That Almost Bankrupted His Dental Company (ft. Cory Pinegar)
23 June 2026

The Mistake That Almost Bankrupted His Dental Company (ft. Cory Pinegar)

Just a Couple of Dentists

About

If you've ever found yourself saying, "Wait...we used to do that," you're not alone. That's one of the reasons Alex created Milo...to give practices a simple way to document systems and keep teams accountable. Check it out at HERE!


This Week's Episode



Cory Pinegar bought a dental business for $1.


A few years later, he was buried in debt, chasing growth, and wondering if the whole thing was going to work.


Today, Reach has thousands of team members supporting healthcare practices around the world, but getting there wasn't nearly as smooth as it looked from the outside.


We talked about the mistakes he made while building Call Force, the vanity metrics that almost got him in trouble, and why he eventually made the difficult decision to completely pivot the business. Cory shares how he transformed Call Force from a recall and answering service company into Reach, one of the largest virtual staffing companies in healthcare.


We also got into staffing, rising overhead, reimbursement rates, virtual assistants, and why building a sustainable business matters more than looking successful.


This was one of those conversations that started as a business story and turned into a discussion about growth, leadership, and failure.


Topics we cover:

• Buying a business for $1 while still in college
• Why CallForce nearly failed
• The dangers of chasing vanity metrics
• The pivot from CallForce to Reach
• Debt, cash flow, and scaling a business
• Hiring and retention challenges in dentistry
• Why dental practices are feeling squeezed
• Virtual assistants and the future of staffing
• Building a sustainable business
• The mindset shifts that come from failure


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