As CEO and founder of Everyday Contacts, Lawrence Chavez designed a hybrid D2C business to strengthen not disrupt the doctor-patient relationship. He speaks with Elian and Juleyka about pitching this unconventional idea to investors and eyecare partners, standing up to pushback, and why he’s not afraid to commit first in business relationships.
Our listener story features a Latina entrepreneur who grew her private practice Linardi Therapy Services inspired and supported by industry mentors and role models.
This episode was supported by our LBAN Alumni Founding Sponsors Windrose Vision, VND, Fig Factor Media and Allegiant Electric.
Elian Savodivker:
Hello, and welcome to Scaled: The Latino business story. I'm Elian Savodivke, Director of Engagement at LBAN, the Latino Business Action Network.
Juleyka Lantigua:
And I'm his cohost Juleyka Lantigua, SLEI-Ed alum and founder and CEO of LWC Studios.
Savodivker: On this show, we bring you stories and insights from the fastest growing segment of the US business sector, Latino entrepreneurs. Our guests reflect on their business journeys and help us contextualize the world-class research we do here at LBAN.
Lantigua: Today I am, and I know you are, so excited to welcome Lawrence Chavez. He's the founder and CEO of Everyday Contacts. Oh, and he's also a SLEI-Ed alum.
Savodivker: Yes, he is. He's also a serial entrepreneur, investor and mentor. And one of the things I really appreciated about our conversation was how his experience in all of those different roles within the business world have helped inform him on how to run his current business.
Lantigua: He is so insightful and I particularly appreciated how candid he was about the challenges he experienced with this new business model that he was trying to introduce to the eyecare world. I mean, he got push back. He got questions. Even some of his close friends were looking at him sideways and he stuck to it, because in his mind he was building a business based on relationships and commitments to certain values that he held. And I think a lot of us can really relate to that as Latino entrepreneurs. I certainly relate to that as someone who wants to build the business based on certain values that I want to bring into my industry. I mean, he is brilliant about this approach and the clarity that he has as he implements it.
Savodivker: Juleyka, he's such a wealth of knowledge. I get to work with Lawrence so much, both on the LBAN side, and he's given me a lot of advice for my own business. And today we get to share that knowledge with our audience. So with that, here's our conversation with Lawrence Chavez.
Lawrence Chavez:
I am the CEO and founder of Everyday Contacts, which is a new contact lens company. And I am an LBAN alumni, a cohort four, a great experience. I've met some amazing people and I'm very excited to be here.
Lantigua: So excited to have you as someone who wears glasses, I'm interested in what you do.
Chavez: Nice.
Savodivker: Lawrence, we're really excited to hear from you and our research shows that Latinos grow businesses at a faster rate than non Latino owned businesses, I think it's about 44% based on the research. As a serial entrepreneur and investor, how do you recognize the business opportunity to open up in the optometry industry?
Chavez: It came from surveying the market, talking to people, understanding what their needs were and trying to figure out how to solve those needs. At the bottom line that's how it is for everybody. If there's not a need, there's not a business.
The problem that we're solving within the eyecare space is a problem that has evolved with the advent of the internet. So it's just a business model problem at its very basic. In the eyecare space, doctors have always sold products and services to their patients. It's a very common theme, not just in eyecare, but also in dentistry, dermatology, all these businesses that have an element of medical services combined with the ability to sell products.
And what has happened over the past 20, 30 years, is that online businesses have come in and offered a consumer convenience for contact lens users that doctors have not been able to adapt to. This is sometimes bad for the doctors and sometimes bad for the consumers, because it creates a divide if you will, a chasm between the doctor and their patient.
Lantigua: All right. So I want to follow up on that. Why solve the problem in the doctor to patient way that you solve the problem?
Chavez: We know from research when a patient sees their eye doctor more often, and I think this is pretty across the board, their health outcomes are better. So when they buy products online, they're less connected with their doctor, they're more likely to get a product that's not the right product for them, and they follow up with their doctor less.
The solution that we're providing, we're providing what we call a hybrid direct consumer. So for the contact lens user, it gives them all the things they like about a direct consumer experience, a branded product delivered to their home or office on a monthly basis. So very D to C for the consumer, but it's only available from an Everyday Contacts partner doctor. And why that's relevant for the consumers, they know they're getting a product that they want from a doctor that they trust. And for the doctor, it helps them stay connected with the patient. Our branding and packaging has the doctor's name and information. So there's the connection that's still there that is otherwise lost in a internet consumer transaction.
Lantigua: Okay. So I'm going to ask you the question that everybody's going to ask. How do doctors get paid for participating in this partnership?
Chavez: The same way they get paid when they sell contact lenses right now. They're a reseller of our product. They get a net margin the same way if they were selling one of the big four contact lenses. Doctors have sold contact lenses for years. So the reimbursement to the doctor is very much the same as they have always done. The difference is the connection that our eCommerce system and our marketing provides between the doctor and the patient is very different. And because we're exclusive to the doctor, what it does, it allows them to provide their patient a product that isn't going to be available from a third party distributor, which means the distributor's not stealing that revenue from the doctor.
Savodivker: And I know like any good Latino, you like to innovate. Something that we saw was the partner agreement and stockholder agreement that your company created. What made you realize that the company's commitment to the eyecare community needed to be formalized in that way?
Chavez: Everything that we do is all about relationships. Business is a relationship between the business and their customer and business and their vendors, a business and their community. And so in a relationship, somebody has to commit first. And so what we did is we chose to commit first, because we were asking for a commitment from our doctors, or our partner doctors to commit to us, but given the history, there was a little bit of trepidation associated with that. So what we did is we made a commitment. And what that commitment is, is that we will only sell our product through our partner doctors and we will not sell through third party providers. So we put it into our mission statement. We also put it into our bylaws and we put it into our stock purchase agreement.
What we mean by that is that anybody who invests in us knows that they can't sell the company to a acquirer that will not honor the commitment that we've made to our doctors. So the doctors know completely, it goes all the way down to our investors, that our investors know that we are fully committed to the doctors. It's just all about commitment.
Lantigua: So I want to drill down on something there. In a way you chose to narrow, but also deepen your market by doing that. So talk to me about the information or the analysis that you did to arrive at that decision to be exclusive through doctor's offices.
Chavez: So for independent eye doctors, they do, I'm going to mess the number up, but it's, I think, 63% of all eye exams, but they only sell 37% of the products. But they're the ones that are making that purchase recommendation to the consumer and they're doing it primarily based upon the consumer's needs and health options. So to be clear, we're not asking a doctor to do anything that they wouldn't do. So there is that distinction between the amount of exams that are being done and the amount of sales that the doctors are able to get from that. That was one of the elements, is the doctors are doing the majority of the exams. The other point is if we came into the market and introduced it in the way that everybody else is, we would be like everybody else. So at some point in time, you have to make a choice. You have to decide who you're going to support. If you choose to be all things to all people, you will be nothing to no one.
Lantigua: Preach! Say that again, for those in the back, Lawrence.
Chavez: If you try to be all things to all people, you'll be nothing to no one.
Lantigua: I love that. So when people started to approach you about investing, was there any pushback from anyone who is noble and knowledgeable and also a business person and a serial entrepreneur like you, and they're looking at your plan going, okay, let me understand this. You're going to narrow your market by specifically working with doctors and you're not going to sell in the big box stores or anywhere else and the rest of us have to commit to support these ideas.
Chavez: Well, so there's always pushback. If you're not getting told, “no” you're not doing something unique. And then-
Lantigua: Dude, you are just dropping gems today! My version of that, because I'm from the Bronx is, “if you're not pissing somebody off, you're not working hard enough.”
Chavez: And it's interesting, because the way we get our market is we go after supporting the doctor, the doctor's the recommender, the reseller of our product. And I had a friend of mine in the accelerator investing area and we had talked about this and he had always pushed back on the idea that this should be more direct to the consumer, you don't need the doctor. And there was an article that came out where pure D to C companies like Warby Parker, Allbirds were losing valuation in part because the cost of social media advertising has gone through the roof and that's how they get their customers. And he sent me a note, and the funny thing was, he basically said, “it seems like going after the doctor's not such a disadvantage after all.”
And you create a business model based upon the best available information that you have. And yes, you have to take input from other people, but understand that sometimes other people are wrong.
So you have to do what you think is best based upon what you're doing. And the way we decided what we're doing, is we were talking to contact lens users and eye doctors and that's how we developed our business model, it's that type of customer discovery. The investors on the back end of it, they may have some information as to what's good, and sometimes they have excellent advice, but sometimes their advice isn't good. So you just got to work with what you have.
Lantigua: All right, Lawrence. That's awesome. But everybody's thinking the same thing I'm thinking: “but are they making money?”
Chavez: Great question, and we're starting to. So this is a startup business, it has scale. So what we're working on doing, is we're creating partnerships with doctors so that we can grow to significant scale. Like I said, we just started making money, but I feel very confident about our prospects, the partnerships that we have, and our opportunity to basically create a next generation business model that has all the elements of the direct consumer experience for the consumer, but also respects the needs of the doctor and the involvement of the doctor.
Savodivker: That's awesome. Lawrence. I know that there's going to be a lot of people listening, a lot of entrepreneurs that are going out and getting funding. You've successfully gone through various rounds, both on the funding side and as an entrepreneur. Can you share with us, what should they be on the lookout for?
Chavez: The first thing that I tell people when they ask me, what should I do, is be yourself. When I first got involved in the venture side of things, we were doing a pitch to raise some additional money for a fund and I tried to do it the way I thought a VC should do it and I failed miserably. I mean, it was not just a little bomb. I mean, you could see the smoke for miles and it was in part because I wasn't being me.
You got to be respectful. You have to understand your market. You have to understand the details, but never try to present yourself as something that you're not, because people know right away, number one. And if they don't find out right away, they're going to know really quick. And when they find out they're not going to be very happy.
I've been told, no, a lot in raising capital, but it's for the most part, it's either a no, because there's something about what we're doing that the investor just can't get their head around and it's possible that they don't like me, which is okay, but they don't like me for who I am. It's not because they don't like me because who I tried to be.
Lantigua: Okay. But Lawrence you've been an investor too. So your experience sitting on the receiving end of those pitches didn't help you as you were pitching? What was the difference and what did you learn about pitching and being pitched to?
Chavez: Part of that was, is I had pitched earlier as an entrepreneur, but I was in a different world, I was in the VC world. And there is a perception, rightly or wrongly, that you're in a different world and that's the one thing I also realized is most VCs are just as insecure and uncomfortable as most everybody else. But at the time I didn't quite realize that.
Don't do anything because you think that's what you should or because that's the way that you've been presented. I enjoyed being in that VC role. It wasn't me in the long term, for me as a VC, you do a thousand things, three inches deep. Whereas an entrepreneur, you do a couple things, 500 feet deep.
So it fits my personality style better. And that's why I feel like I'm in a better spot doing what I'm doing, because you get to dive deep into certain things that you don't have a chance to do as an investor. I mean, that's one of the things I think people need to be cautious about, is doing things because they think they should be doing them.
Lantigua: And it's one of those things that immigrants and children of immigrants have to break free from, because we think that there are rubrics or templates or ways of being and ways of succeeding, and for many of us, it takes a really long time to break free of those notions. So I really, really appreciate you sharing that.
Chavez: It is something we have to work through and if you're not working through it, you're not expanding your horizons.
Savodivker: Love it. Love it. I want to ask you, you've been through the SLEI program, you're an alum of the program you've mentored in the program. What have been the things in the program that have helped you through your journey as an entrepreneur? The takeaways, why is somebody that might be listening saying, Hey, that's a program that I need to be involved with?
Chavez: Number one, the program was a wonderful opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs, to meet people from Stanford, to meet some potential investors, but beyond the relationships which on its face and by itself was enough, there was the education associated with it. Being able to identify some of those little things that I had ignored that shouldn't have been ignored. And then just the follow on of the connection and the community that comes from it.
Savodivker: Lawrence, you are an amazing and inspirational person, entrepreneur that has no limits. Thank you so much for being here with us today. I know that we appreciate all of the truth bombs that you dropped. Thank you so much from the LBAN.
Chavez: Thank you Juleyka, thank you Elian.
Savodivker: Juleyka, how good was Lawrence?
Lantigua: Oh, he's great. Wise and funny, a little bit irreverent. So it was just a good combination. By far though, my favorite thing he said was, sometimes you try to be something and you just have to accept that you're not.
Savodivker: Yeah. Yeah.
Lantigua: That is one of the hardest things to figure out. Someone cannot really embody that until they've experienced that.
Savodivker: Yeah, and I really love the part about the imposter syndrome. And I think as Latinos and Lantinas, we feel that a lot. And so just understanding who you are and understanding that what you're building is right, I think is key. I think Lawrence knows very well who he is and the product that he's making. And that's now what he goes into those meetings talking about., not something that he's not.
Lantigua: Yeah, the best anecdote for me was him getting that note back from his friend who's also an investor later and the friend saying, oh, maybe your idea wasn't so bad after all, because look at all these other people and how they're performing.
And I feel like a lot of people who are visionaries, who are contrarians, who just have a slightly different worldview on things, are discouraged, because we are financially very risk adverse as a community. We are very conservative fiscally, and so when someone says I'm going to go and quit my job and start a business, everybody thinks you're going to end up under a bridge, sleeping under a cardboard.
And we need to really work on gathering around the person who's doing that and saying, “oOkay, we've got you. How can we support you? What resources do we have that we can marshal to help you to grow, get through the first year, the first two years?” Because there are so many brilliant ideas that just will never see the light of day, because all the people will bring fear to the ideas when an entrepreneur brings up the ideas.
Savodivker: Absolutely. And that's also the power of network, being around other entrepreneurs that can support you. And the last thing that I'll say is I absolutely love when he talked about being okay with “no”, right? A lot of times we take things very personal, being okay with no. You're going to get a lot of no's in VC funding in your business.
You're going to get to a yes. By being you, by doing the right thing, you're going to get to a yes. But before that yes, is a lot of no's. And I think being comfortable with that, accepting that, is the most powerful thing that you can be doing. So absolutely love what Lawrence came here and talked to us about. Great entrepreneur, great friend and great mentor.
Lantigua: Yeah, no, that was a great conversation. And I hope that the younger folks in the ranks of the program and folks who are not in the program, really take heed, because some of those perspectives are foundational to a successful entrepreneur. You really can't be a candle in the wind when it comes to the success of your business, you have to stand firm in what you believe and what you intend to build.
Savodivker: Exactly.
Lantigua: Juleyka here. I want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts, to all our listeners who sent in their business stories in response to our call out. We received so many awesome responses. Here's one of our favorites.
Nicole: Hi, my name is Dr. Nicole Linardi. I am a licensed mental health counselor. I am the business owner and clinician at Linardi Therapy Services in Plantation, Florida, serving the Latino community. We have been in business for the last almost two years. A lot of challenges come with owning your own business, right? At first, it's definitely insecurities of our own. It's not knowing where to start or what to prioritize. But I've been blessed to have great mentors in my university and professional career and that is far and beyond what exceeds what an entrepreneur such as myself needs.
Some successes that I've had have obviously just been seeing how my business has been able to thrive. Seeing that my clients themselves are showing improvement as well, or even able to acknowledge their improvement within themselves. I recently became a mom and so being able to show my daughter, role model for her, what an entrepreneur and a Latina business owner looks like and be able to at least motivate and encourage her that anything is possible, is a big success.
Lantigua: To share your business stories with us and to possibly get featured on the show, send a detailed voice memo to our producer, Virginia she's at virginia@lwcstudios.com.
This episode was supported by our LBAN Alumni Founding Sponsors Windrose Vision, VND, Fig Factor Media and Allegiant Electric.
Scaled: The Latino Business Story is produced by LWC Studios for LBAN. Virginia Lora is our producer. Kojin Tashiro and Elizabeth Nakano are our mixers. Kokon Tashiro did our sound design. Paulina Velasco is managing producer. To learn more about the work and research LBAN is doing and our Business Scaling Program at Stanford, please visit LBAN.us, that’s l-b-a-n [dot] us. Thanks for listening. I’m Juleyka Lantigua.
CITATION:
Lantigua, Juleyka and Elian Savodivker, hosts. “To Build Strong Relationships, Make Bold Commitments.”
Scaled: The Latino Business Story,
LWC Studios., December 19, 2022. LBAN.us/scaled.