Zocdoc
Company typePrivate
IndustryTelemedicine
Founded2007
Founders
Headquarters
New York City
,
United States
Area served
United States
Key people
Oliver Kharraz, CEO
ServicesTelehealth, Medical appointment booking platform
Websitewww.zocdoc.com

Zocdoc is a New York City-based company offering an online service that allows people to find and book in-person or telemedicine appointments for medical or dental care. The platform also functions as a physician and dentist rating and comparison database. The service is free for patients, and doctors pay to advertise their appointment slots.[1] Established in 2007, the private company had a $1.8 billion valuation by August 2015, the third-highest for a startup in New York at the time.[2]

History

Early history

Zocdoc was founded in New York City in 2007 by Oliver Kharraz, Nick Ganju, and Cyrus Massoumi, who served as the company's first CEO.[3][4] Cofounders Kharraz and Massoumi met while working as consultants at McKinsey. Massoumi had experienced a burst eardrum while traveling and struggled to find available appointments of local doctors and that is where the idea for their business started.[5][6] The service was launched during the TechCrunch40 conference (now called TechCrunch Disrupt) in September 2007.[1][7] It began as a service for dentists in Manhattan, and expanded nationwide to include doctors in over 100 specialties.[1][8]

In early 2008, the company received an initial round of $3 million in funding from Khosla Ventures. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff also invested in Zocdoc in 2008, helping the company expand the service into other cities and healthcare providers.[9][10]

From 2011 to 2013 the company grew to be in over 30 cities, and by 2014, Zocdoc covered 40 percent of markets in 2,000 cities, and had five million users booking appointments every month.[5][11]

Zocdoc was recognized as a Best Place to Work in both New York[12][13] and Arizona[14][15] for four consecutive years from 2010 to 2014.

2015 to present

Additional rounds of funding in Zocdoc from Goldman Sachs, SV Angel founder Ron Conway, and the Founders Fund among others, resulted in a $1.8 billion valuation by August 2015.[1]

In November 2015, Massoumi was replaced by cofounder Oliver Kharraz as CEO, who was the COO since the company's launch.[16]

By 2017, the company reported more than six million patients use Zocdoc every month, booking appointments throughout the United States.[17]

In January 2019, the company announced it changed the pricing model from subscription to referral fee in some markets. Some doctors expressed concern that a per customer fee would be harder to recoup unless patients return for additional visits.[18] Zocdoc said the change resulted in a 50 percent increase in the number of providers on its platform in states that have transitioned to the new payment model, and the company reported its revenue had increased after growing 35 percent year-over-year in 2019.[19] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zocdoc expanded into telehealth so that doctors on its platform could connect with patients over video.[20]

In a lawsuit filed against Nick Ganju, Oliver Kharraz and Netta Samroengraja in 2020, Massoumi alleged that they perpetrated "an elaborate series of lies and deceptions" to steal control of the company from him.[21][16]

Service

Zocdoc provides a scheduling system on a paid subscription basis for medical personnel. The scheduling system can be accessed by subscribers both as an online service and via the deployed office calendar software, or integrated with their websites.[22] Users can go to Zocdoc to search using a symptom, specialty, visit reason, or doctor's name, along with their location and insurance information to view available appointment slots. They can then narrow the search by reviewing office locations, photographs, personnel information, educational background, and user-submitted reviews.[23][24] In late 2012, the company added a check-in feature, allowing patients to fill out medical forms online ahead of time.[25]

For each doctor listed, the users are able to see the free slots in the schedule and make appointments for specific times, for either in-person or telemedicine appointments.[7] In May 2020, Zocdoc launched its telehealth service.[26]

COVID-19

In 2020, Zocdoc built a pilot program for scheduling COVID vaccination appointments with Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. The Zocdoc Vaccine Scheduler is free and is integrated into an organization's website to screen patients and book appointments. Since its launch, the Zocdoc-run Mount Sinai scheduler had booked over 100,000 appointments, booking 100 appointments per minute at its peak in the early days of the vaccine rollout.[27]

Zocdoc also partnered with the city of Chicago to help the city's residents find and book vaccine appointments in a central spot.[28] There is also a vaccination scheduling service on the company's site for additional cities and states such as Alabama, Illinois, Kansas, and Massachusetts, where people can see if they are eligible for vaccination, find out where they can get vaccinated, book an appointment and book their second shot at the same time.[20][29]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Winkler, Rolfe (August 20, 2015). "ZocDoc Valued at $1.8 Billion in New Funding Round". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  2. ^ Kosoff, Maya. "ZocDoc, a doctor-booking app, is now the third-most valuable startup in NYC". Business Insider. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  3. ^ Groth, Aimee. "It Took 'A Thousand 0.1% Improvements' For ZocDoc To Work". Business Insider. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  4. ^ "(Founder Stories) ZocDoc's Massoumi: A Bad Flight & Terrible Customer Service Created ZocDoc". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Zocdoc: Oliver Kharraz". NPR. August 17, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  6. ^ Galewitzy, Phil (January 3, 2011), "Medical practices increasingly allow online appointments", USA Today, archived from the original on July 12, 2012, retrieved July 30, 2012
  7. ^ a b "ZocDoc: I Hope You Are Not Too Good to Be True", TechCrunch, December 7, 2010, archived from the original on November 26, 2012, retrieved December 4, 2012
  8. ^ Cherlynn Low (May 13, 2020). "Zocdoc becomes a telehealth facilitator with new video service". Engadget.
  9. ^ Krangel, Eric. "Jeff Bezos, Marc Benioff Invest In Doctor Reservation Service ZocDoc (AMZN, CRM)". Business Insider. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  10. ^ Kristen Nicole (October 1, 2008). "Zocdoc becomes Bezos' latest investment". VentureBeat.
  11. ^ Clifford, Catherine (February 4, 2014). "Entrepreneurs at ZocDoc Say They Can Solve a Major Obamacare Concern". Entrepreneur. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  12. ^ "Best Places to Work 2010". Crain's New York Business. December 5, 2010. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  13. ^ "2014 Best Places to Work in NYC". Crain's New York Business. December 5, 2014. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  14. ^ "2015 Top Companies to Work for in Arizona Winners". BestCompaniesAZ. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  15. ^ Loebe, Ryan (July 1, 2014). "CareerBuilder 2014 List – Top Places to Work in AZ". AZ Tech Beat. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  16. ^ a b "Zocdoc leadership move to dismiss co-founder's lawsuit, defend company's financial health". Fierce Healthcare. October 15, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  17. ^ Susie Gharib (July 29, 2020). "The Business Plan That Keeps Zocdoc Successful". Fortune.
  18. ^ Farr, Christina (January 29, 2019). "Doctor booking app Zocdoc will start charging a new patient fee despite objections from some providers". CNBC. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  19. ^ Elise Reuter (February 11, 2021). "After pivot from scheduling tool to telehealth platform, Zocdoc raises $150M". MedCity News.
  20. ^ a b Reader, Ruth (January 15, 2021). "Scheduling COVID-19 vaccinations is a mess. Zocdoc has a solution". Fast Company.
  21. ^ "Zocdoc co-founder sues executives for staging 'fraudulent coup' to oust him 5 years ago". FierceHealthcare. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  22. ^ "Zocdoc Takes Pain out of Making Appointments", PC World, April 8, 2009, archived from the original on April 10, 2009, retrieved December 4, 2012
  23. ^ Montalbano, Elizabeth (January 22, 2010), "Click here to see the doctor", CNN, archived from the original on October 10, 2012, retrieved July 30, 2012
  24. ^ Urvaksh, Karkaria (July 1, 2011), "Zocdoc developing prescription for doctor's office", Atlanta Business Chronicle, archived from the original on January 11, 2015, retrieved July 30, 2012
  25. ^ Mangalindan, JP (March 5, 2014). "ZocDoc CEO: We'll be nationwide by end of year". Fortune. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  26. ^ Jonathan Shieber (March 13, 2020). "Twilio tapped for Zocdoc's expansion into telehealth video consultants". TechCrunch.
  27. ^ Wetsman, Nicole (January 15, 2015). "Zocdoc offers COVID-19 vaccine scheduler to health care organizations". The Verge.
  28. ^ Green, Miranda (February 10, 2021). "As COVID vaccine scheduling websites fall short, tech companies and public health officials are scrambling". Fortune.
  29. ^ Kara Brown (February 11, 2021). "9 Websites To Help You Find a COVID-19 Vaccine Appointment". Well + Good.
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