Back in 2014, Chad Price founded Mako Medical along with his brother, Adam Price, and mutual friend, Josh Arant. Headed up by nationally-renowned doctors specializing in methodology development and pathological services, the business is an industry game-changer. However, the road to success hasn’t been free from obstacles. Speaking to Underdog NYC, Chad Price revealed the secrets of the company’s origins.
Learning Lessons the Hard Way
Before the three men started Mako Medical, none of them had experience in the industry. The seed of the idea came from the frustration the Price brothers felt at waiting for medical results for their special-needs sister. The co-founders mused that there could be a better way to deliver medical test results to the community. From that notion, the idea for the business was born. Despite this, the team had a lot to learn along the way.
“The early days were rough,” explained Chad Price in the interview. “We started with no experience in healthcare, no training, no background in science or labs, and realized after we started we were now in one of the most heavily-regulated industries in the country. We started with two goals—disrupt healthcare and use the revenue we create to fund the charities and causes we were all passionate about. The latter saved us.”
Financing a Fledgling Business
As any entrepreneur will know, financing a new business venture is no small feat. Between the three of them, the co-founders had to find a mass of funding to get things off the ground. Since they wanted the main focus of the company to be the wider community, the team decided not to go down the investment route. This decision gave them complete autonomy over Mako Medical. However, it meant they would have to finance it personally.
Chad Price admits that the founders underestimated everything from the time it would take to find customers to the cash-flow they needed to make it work. “A group of us sold what we could, borrowed what we could, and put everything into the start of Mako Medical,” he said in the interview. We rented a 3000 square-foot building, bought one piece of lab equipment, and hired one technician to help us run it.”
To get things off the ground, the founders had to be thrifty. That meant using their personal equipment wherever possible and avoiding splurging on unnecessary fees. It was that scrappy approach to starting Mako Medical that helped it thrive over the years.
“We used our personal cars to handle logistics, our personal phones to take calls, and personal computers to work on,” said Chad Price. “We all worked around a conference room table and took turns doing building and roof repairs.”
A Series of Bad Luck
While the founders had hoped for plain sailing, starting up Mako Medical was anything but that. From the offset, the three learned that there would be countless obstacles in their way. To make matters worse, when the team opened the office, they soon started to have a series of bad luck. As Chad Price put it, “Everything that could go wrong—went wrong.”
Equipment broke. Roof leaks. Water Leaks. Car accidents. Break-ins. Trailer being stolen. A/C going out. Twelve-hour days turned into 20-hour days. Christmas was a painting day and New Years was used to redo flooring,” he explained in the interview. Against the odds, the team worked hard—even through holidays—to ensure the success of the business.
Positively Impacting the Community
Despite the setbacks, the team behind Mako Medical always had a community focus. While some entrepreneurs showcase the perceived glamor of starting a business, the three men were keen to foster a culture of giving back from the start. They combined that with an ethos of working closely together; none of the founders originally had titles.
“Our entire team focused on causes and charities they were passionate about. We pooled together money to donate, volunteered, and did what we could to help. This became the fuel for our team and we pushed through every setback,” said Chad Price. “We ate together, did Bible study together, volunteered together, and always encouraged families to be apart so they would support what we were trying to build.”
Fast-forward to the present day and, while Mako Medical is now well-established, the company culture has not changed. Chad Price says that he and the team know that God has allowed this success story to happen. As he puts it, there is no other reason that three scrappy 20-somethings would have been able to pull this off with no experience.
“We now own almost every piece of lab equipment that is on the market and have a medical team that would rival the best hospitals in the world. We recently placed #284 on the Inc. 5000. A proud moment for our team,” said Chad Price. “What didn’t change? Our culture. Giving back and helping others is our primary focus.”
About Mako Medical and Chad Price
Headed up by an expert team of nationally recognized doctors specializing in methodology development and pathological services, Mako Medical is a game-changing healthcare brand. The business was founded in 2014 by Chad Price, Adam Price, and Josh Arant, who wanted to transform the sector. The established company is now an industry leader showing how laboratories should treat both patients and healthcare professionals.
Throughout the year, our writers feature fresh, in-depth, and relevant information for our audience of 40,000+ healthcare leaders and professionals. As a healthcare business publication, we cover and cherish our relationship with the entire health care industry including administrators, nurses, physicians, physical therapists, pharmacists, and more. We cover a broad spectrum from hospitals to medical offices to outpatient services to eye surgery centers to university settings. We focus on rehabilitation, nursing homes, home care, hospice as well as men’s health, women’s heath, and pediatrics.
