Teem’s Cory Pinegar on How the Dental Industry Is 20 Years Behind in Business Technology

The staffing industry has undergone significant transformation, but few have approached it with the unique perspective of Cory Pinegar, Founder of Teem. In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Cory shares how a chance opportunity to clean out a closet for $500 led to acquiring a struggling dental service division for just $1. From those humble beginnings — where making payroll sometimes depended on collecting from a single difficult client — he's built a global staffing operation that now maintains a stringent 0.4% acceptance rate to ensure quality.

 

What makes Cory's approach revolutionary is his insight into healthcare staffing challenges: dentists receive only about two weeks of business training during four years of dental school, leading to emotional rather than data-driven decisions. Teem addresses this by providing comprehensive performance dashboards that transform perceived "busyness" into measurable value, showing exactly how many calls were answered and appointments scheduled. Although focusing initially on dental practices, Pinegar has strategically expanded into optometry and veterinary markets, creating sustainable staffing solutions that bridge cultural gaps and deliver consistent results in an industry where reliability trumps cost savings.

 

Topics Discussed:

• Transforming a struggling quarter-million-dollar service division into a multimillion-dollar operation serving thousands of dental practices, highlighting the importance of recognizing opportunity in unexpected places.
• Despite being extremely knowledgeable clinically, dental practitioners receive just two weeks of business training during four years of dental school, creating a significant disconnect between clinical and operational excellence that creates market opportunities.
• The dramatic shift from less than 10% private equity ownership in dental practices eight years ago to over 25% today, and how rising interest rates have slowed acquisition trends that once projected to reach 35% market penetration.
• How implementation of performance tracking dashboards provides dental practice owners with unprecedented visibility into metrics like calls answered, appointments scheduled, and insurance verifications, replacing "busyness" perception with measurable value.
• The evolution from outsourcing merely for cost reduction to strategic staffing for reliability and loyalty, with a rigorous vetting process that selects just 0.4% of applicants.
• Rejecting the "us versus AI" mentality in favor of integrating AI as a productivity multiplier for human workers while preserving the human connection clients still demand, particularly in healthcare settings requiring trust and empathy.
• Growing a business organically with a focus on solving real customer problems rather than pursuing the "pump and dump" model prevalent in venture-backed startups, with clear pillars: hiring exceptional people, providing thorough training, ensuring value visibility, and AI enablement.
• Strategically focusing on regions where regulatory complexity and bilingual requirements create higher demand for staffing solutions, particularly in states like California, Texas, and Florida where labor costs and compliance burdens are highest.
• Creating intentional but organic momentum in healthcare verticals where decision-makers exhibit herd mentality, focusing on penetrating the crucial early-adopter segment that influences the broader market.
• Democratizing access to international talent that was previously available only to large corporations, providing complete infrastructure including employer of record services, compliance management, and performance analytics.

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