Episode 77: Is there ever really a "right time" to start a practice? In this episode of the Dental CEO Podcast, Scott sits down with Dr. Stamatis Kouniaris and his wife Katarina, a practicing attorney, to talk about one of the boldest timing decisions a young family can make: launching a dental startup in Canada while raising three kids under five, including a newborn just one month old.

Just a month after opening Ilios Dentaire, Stamatis and Katarina are already booked out three to four weeks, adding a hygienist, and hiring a second assistant, all while juggling final construction details, working capital, and the everyday chaos of a young family. They open up about why they chose a startup over an acquisition, how financing and insurance structures shaped their decisions, what it's really like when one spouse is a dentist and the other is navigating life alongside the build, and why they believe waiting for the "right time" often means waiting forever.

Whether you're weighing a startup against an acquisition, wondering how kids factor into the timeline, or just want an honest look at the first month of practice ownership, this conversation is a real, unfiltered look at building a business and a family at the same time.

Topics covered: startup vs. acquisition decisions, financing and lending strategy, insurance and fee structures, balancing parenthood with practice ownership, and the value of coaching during a startup build.

See photos and videos of Ilios Dentaire on Instagram: @ilios.dentaire

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Scott Leune sits down to give young dentists the advice he wishes someone had given him. He breaks down the four numbers every associate should be tracking, why a high-income associateship matters more than a signing bonus, and why waiting to feel "ready" for ownership is usually the exact reason people never get there. It's a blunt, no-fluff take on why so many careers stall out in mediocrity, and what it actually takes to avoid it. Whether you're a dental student, a new associate, or years into your career, this episode is a reset on what success in dentistry should really look like.

Radiologic AI was just the beginning. In this episode, Scott sits down with Ophir Tanz, founder and CEO of Pearl, to unpack how AI has evolved from a single feature into an entire layer running underneath the modern dental practice, handling everything from CBCT analysis and ambient charting to claims, insurance verification, and scheduling. They get into where this is headed next: a world where AI doesn't just assist your team, it becomes the operating system your practice runs on. If you haven't engaged with AI in your practice yet, this episode makes the case for why now, not later, is the moment to start.

$4 million in debt. A business partner who walked away. That's the position Dr. Omar Virani was in, and it would have ended most people's dental careers right there. Instead, he turned it into a thriving two-location practice in Vancouver, Canada, one with 19 operatories, associates who actually want to work there, and the kind of balanced schedule most owners only dream about. In this episode, Omar walks through exactly how he rebuilt from rock bottom, and Scott and Omar break down what U.S. dentists can learn from Canada's very different approach to associate pay and insurance. This is what it actually looks like to lose everything and build something better.

Virtual administrative teams are already helping thousands of dental practices handle insurance verification, billing, claims, and phones, and now AI copilots are layering on top of that support to speed up claim resubmissions, improve call conversion, and lift overall work quality without adding any burden to your onsite team. This episode breaks down how task-specific AI copilots rewrite denied-claim narratives, surface the right attachments before resubmission, and coach calls in real time, plus why a human-in-the-loop still matters even as automation improves. If you've wondered whether AI can help your practice run leaner without dumping more work on your front desk, this conversation shows exactly what that looks like today.

Why do some associate dentists produce five times more than others seeing the exact same number of patients? In this episode of The Dental CEO Podcast, Scott Leune breaks down the four numbers that actually drive associate production, exam volume, diagnostic percentage, treatment plan size, and case acceptance, and shares the national averages versus top-performer benchmarks for each. He walks through exactly how owners should report these numbers to associates on a weekly and monthly basis, so performance gaps become obvious without triggering defensiveness, and how to respond when an associate blames the team, the schedule, or the practice instead of their own numbers. Whether you're an owner trying to build a healthier associate relationship or an associate looking to understand what's really capping your income, this episode gives you a clear, trackable system for closing the gap.

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 sale, all without a single clinical change. Scott breaks down the six expense categories, the target percentages every owner should know, and the quick "rent test" for whether you're too small or simply overspending. His bottom line: disciplined cost control, not reckless growth, is what actually builds wealth. Grab a pen and paper.

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 future multiples that rarely pay out. He shows how selling now nets roughly $9.4M while transitioning out first nets up to $14M+, and what to do instead if your practice is struggling. Whether you plan to buy, sell, or advise someone who will, this could save you millions. Subscribe for new episodes weekly.

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-service when the pressure to take insurance felt relentless, what it really takes to work with your spouse for three decades without losing your marriage, and why the heart of a great practice is not the marketing, it is being able to say clearly who you are before you ever try to sell it. If you have ever wondered whether it is too late to reinvent your career, whether you could practice without insurance, or how to build a brand the world actually responds to, this conversation is for you.

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 the Dental CEO Podcast, Scott sits down with Kent Miller, founder of Dentagraphics, to make the case for trusting the data instead of Dr. Facebook and one-off success stories. They break down what demographics actually tell you about a location, why the right market depends on the kind of dentistry you want to do, and how population, income, age, and competition take the risk out of opening or relocating a practice. The dentists bragging online about beating the odds are the exception, not the playbook. If you want a real shot at 2 million in collections with a healthy overhead, trust the data, not a hunch and not a lucky stranger on the internet.