#289: ER Physician Turns Serial Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist with Dr. John Shufeldt

A physician by trade and an entrepreneur by passion, Dr. John Shufeldt has become a healthcare venture capitalist helping other entrepreneurs start and scale their businesses. Like many entrepreneurs, John noticed a problem within his work space that he wanted to fix. And another. And another. Over the course of his career, John founded 15 businesses, including NextCare Urgent Care—which he scaled to 60 locations generating over $100M in revenue—and MeMD, a telehealth company that he sold to WalMart in 2011.

In this episode, John talks about why efficiency was his core focus in the founding of NextCare and why he hired a CEO to take over the “operator” part of the business instead of running the day-to-day himself. He also talks about the process of selling MeMD to WalMart and why he chose them as the buyer based on what they wanted to do with his company after they bought it. John's ability to maintain his vision across multiple ventures will inspire you to tighten up your own and see what you're really capable of achieving.

What You Will Learn

Why efficiency was the core focus of John's franchise urgent care businesses
Why John hired a CEO years after he started and what led him to make that decision
John’s definition of founder versus operator and why they are vastly different
Why building a company culture from the ground up is so important
The “if only” look John experienced that drives him everyday
How John knows if he’s on track or off track
Why doing something different will increase a businesses intrinsic value
Why John chose WalMart as the buyer of MeMD based on WalMart’s healthcare vision
How John learned the lesson of “hire for culture fit”

// USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment

Bio:

Dr. John Shufeldt is an emergency physician and the ForbesBooks author of Entrepreneur Rx: The Physician’s Guide To Starting A Business.

In 1993, when John noticed the ER was overcrowded with minor illnesses and injuries, he launched his first urgent care practice. The business saw explosive growth, expanding from one to 60 locations during his tenure doing over $100M.

Shufeldt has founded about 15 businesses, including NextCare Urgent Care; MeMD, used by more than 450 providers to virtually treat more than 6 million patients (a telehealth company that was sold to WalMart in 2011); and Tribal EM, dedicated to improving the delivery of healthcare for Indigenous People.

Shufeldt also is the business manager and a founding partner of Empower Emergency Physicians, where he continues to practice and “in his spare time” has started a VC firm that raised $20M to invest in local healthcare startups. In addition to his medical degree, he has an MBA, a law degree and a Six Sigma black belt.

Quotes:

12:03 - “We grow the business, then hire the staff. But what I try to do over the years is, ‘Let’s build this thing to handle a hundred patients a day officially, then when we’re only at 50 or 60, we’ll be screamin’.” - John Shufeldt

15:58 - “I was never one of those fragile perfects who got knocked off the ledge and laid there. I was always like, ‘So?’ and just got back up, because I was so used to screwing this up.” - John Shufeldt

23:31 - “I’ve always coached people to have that fallback. I realized, in emergency medicine, if I’m not working, I’m not making money.” - John Shufeldt

32:04 - “I will be damned if I am laying on my deathbed with that look on my face. I heard this quote,’The definition of hell is on your deathbed, you meet the person you could have become.‘ That was that guy and I thought, ‘That’s not going to be me.’” - John Shufeldt

38:13 - “This is how I always start off these conversations, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if…?’” - John Shufeldt

47:10 - “At the end of the day, you need to be able to look your investors in the eye and say, ‘You know, I did well by you. Not only did we create value for your investment, but you also get the legacy of this business that is now going to expand and do x.’” - John Shufeldt