Here’s what’s going to happen. The company will raise more money. It’s probably at a stage where it doesn’t need or can’t raise any more money. The company is at a $3.2B valuation. That means in lay man’s terms that the company’s products can potentially generate a revenue stream that put’s it a a present value of $3.2B. Let’s say the company expands it’s reach into other economies and jurisdictions beyond the United States. It’s only going to tap into new markets and grow in size. This will put the current leadership team at a position of influence. "Driving" the business hasn’t got much to do with the long term consequences because by the time the regulators catch up and decide about the fate of the company and it’s practices enough damage will have been done. The company might also be operating in geographies where the regulators are even slower to catch up.
The question is, is the business model based on a business that creates true value. Yes, it provides solutions but are those solutions long term and genuine fixes or band aid fixes? The venture capitalists have probably not evaluated the business from a medical perspective. It might be the right solution or it might not. I haven’t seen proof enough to convince me that their solutions are medically sound. What I have seen is a lot of smiles and publicity. Maybe the AAO can also be bought out eventually. I would like to see proof that the solution actually works in the long terms and does not carry risks that are avoidable with a simple visit to the dentist. I would like more proof or use cases where the solutions fail or know about cases where there’s a risk to using these braces. Because there has to be and if not that needs to be publicized as well. In either case I want a more full picture and not just the smiles of pretty faces in just the right amount of lighting on a day of perfect sunshine.
Sources:
https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/10/teeth-straightening-startup-smiledirectclub-is-now-worth-3-2-billion/
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nidhisubbaraman/braces-wars-dentists-are-warning-that-mail-order#.dcp4vWGJ7
https://blog.smiledirectclub.com/meet-your-dentist-smiledirectclub-q-dr-sulitzer/
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