You Should Know: Alex Fenkell

Even by the high standards of Nashville’s health care scene, the rise of SmileDirectClub is something else. Since formally launching in May, the marketer of teeth aligners for people with minor spacing or crowding issues has hired 150 people, signed a lease for an entire floor of downtown’s Bank of America Plaza and received an investment from a blue-chip industry name that values it at $275 million.

Alex Fenkell and his co-founder — as well as former Diabetes Care Club leader Doug Hudson, now the company’s CEO — have positioned SmileDirectClub to take advantage of the rise of 3D printing and telehealth. SmileDirectClub’s model takes a treatment that often requires numerous office visits and has a price tag of up to $8,000 down to a simpler process that costs $1,500 and is marketed at $99 per month. Patients make impressions of their teeth at home using a $95 toolkit and submit their results to licensed dental professionals. The company’s lab then makes an aligner for a treatment that on average lasts just five months.