Problem
The daily grind on your teeth
In this current climate, we're dealing with unprecedented levels of stress. But, did you know that this stress is taking a painful and destructive toll on your teeth? In dentistry, it's called Bruxism, the clenching and grinding of teeth that mainly occurs during sleep. Research shows that 85-90% of the general population will exhibit symptoms of Bruxism, with 30-40 million cases here, in the US. If left untreated, we're at high risk of tooth and jaw damage. This means, many painful and expensive visits to the dentist.
A Night Guard is a non-invasive option to protect against Bruxism, but both come with challenges and limitations:
When your night guard eventually wears down, you'll have to repeat the process and pay again.
Solution
Democratizing dentistry
At OTIS, we’re tearing down the status quo of marked-up dentistry and creating a culture of transparency around preventative oral care. With our direct-to-consumer approach, we’re able to provide custom night guards in an easy and affordable way - using the same premium-quality materials and methods as any other licensed dental provider.
Product
Our easy two-step process
Step 1
Use our Impressions Kit in the comfort and privacy of your home.
Step 2
Use the prepaid envelope to send us your impressions. And in just a few days, you'll receive your OTIS custom night guard in the mail.
Best of all, our scanning technology and subscription plans make the process even easier and more affordable than ever, as we use your stored teeth impressions to create and send you a new and clean custom night guard every 4, 6 or 12 months, based on your bruxing habits.
Traction
20x revenue increase in 1 year
In our first year, we validated the demand, ease and affordability of the OTIS Custom Night Guard through a successful Kickstarter campaign. We continued this validation through a year-long clinical study with UCSF and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs medical center. It was concluded that the OTIS Custom Night Guard was a better, low-cost alternative for those who had a difficult time with office visits, couldn't afford the out-of-pocket costs and/or had insurance coverage limits for their traditional custom night guard. Since then, we've expanded our sales channels through partnerships with large retail chains, like Walgreens and Target.
Customers
Something to smile about
No more time-consuming offices visits or out-of-pocket mark-ups. It's a good thing.
Business model
Subscription-based oral care: one less thing to stress about
Our subscription-based options are offered through B2B and B2C sales channels. Send us your teeth impressions and choose an affordable plan that fits your unique bruxing habits. We take care of the rest.
Initial purchase:
- Wholesale to retailers: $70 (margins: 43%)
- Direct online purchase: $100 (margins: 60%)
Subscription plans for on-going care:
- Every 4 months: $70 (margins: 43%)
- Every 6 months: $80 (margins: 50%)
- Every 12 months: $90 (margins: 56%)
Market
$20B market opportunity
The main cause of Bruxism is stress and anxiety, which means that we're all bruxing at one time or another and it's incurable. This provides a great opportunity to access the $10B Bruxism and $8B+ stress-management markets.
Our target customers are the 80M+ Millennials in the US. They are the most pro-active generation when it comes to health, but have the highest rate of stress-related sleep disorders.
Competition
Doing it better with experience and transparency
OTIS Custom Night Guards provide optimal comfort and protection, in an easy and affordable way. With our direct-to-consumer approach, you can skip the dentist visits and receive a premium-quality custom night guard for 80% less. With decades of dental experience and patient research, we've designed our custom night guards to an equal ratio and thickness of hard and soft materials that provide optimal protection and comfort throughout the night. Our custom night guards are BPA-free, non-allergenic, gluten-free and recyclable. You can sleep peacefully, knowing that it's good for you, your wallet and the planet.
Vision and strategy
Protecting the health & beauty of smiles everywhere
As licensed dental care providers, we're aware of the challenges that one faces when trying to maintain a healthy and beautiful smile. It's why we're always thinking of new and exciting products and technologies to improve one's oral health - paving the way for OTIS Dental to be the go-to brand for oral care products.
Short term goals
- Launch subscription plans
- Launch multi-channel marketing
- Expand operations and staffing
- Begin prototype of v2.0 Custom Brux-Sensor Night Guard
Long term goals
- Launch additional oral health and beauty products in pipeline
- Create brick & mortar locations in major cities to offer same-day services
Funding
$250K raised and $300K in revenue
The founder has personally invested $150K+, with a family/friends investment of $80K and a successful Kickstarter campaign of $15K+. Since then, we've started a nationwide retailer partnership with Walgreens in 2020, and finalized a new retail partnership and purchase order with Target for 2021.
To date, we've generated approximately $300K through B2B and B2C sales channels, and currently raising $750K in growth capital to reach our next milestones:
Founders
Led by professional and personal experience
Our founder knows firsthand the dire need for an easy and affordable night guard. A year into starting his career as a registered dental hygienist and preventative dental science researcher, Andrew was the victim of a hate-crime that left him in the ICU for two weeks and diagnosed with PTSD-induced Bruxism. Faced with the OTC and dentist-made night guard challenges, himself, Andrew knew that something had to change, so he created OTIS. In addition to designing the OTIS Custom Night Guard, Andrew has invented a micro sensor technology that expands the protective function of the product into an oral health-monitoring and stress-management tool.