Now with the help of a Small Business Administration loan, Full Body Pilates and Movement Therapy in Tustin is back to full strength.

The couple had acquired their studio with an SBA loan—known as a 7a—tied to the prime. The monthly payment started increasing significantly, putting pressure on monthly cash flow. They were able to refinance into a fixed-rate loan program—known as a 504.

After COVID-19 struck, the business got a $100,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), which was designed to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic. The EIDL loan was facilitated by SBA and the 504 by Jennifer Davis with TMC Financing in Irvine.

They used the EIDL money for payroll and equipment, paying no interest in the beginning because of the structure of the program.

“The first year we didn’t have to pay,” she said of the EIDL emergency loan.
The business also got some help from the city of Tustin, according to Tarakdian.

Early Payments

Now that the business has returned to growth, Dayse and Sanio are paying off the EIDL loan early.

“We’re actually paying extra,” she told the Business Journal on April 19. “We are paying over what it’s supposed to be.” That means instead of $488 a month, they are paying $988 a month.

“We want to pay it off early.”

The company has seven employees and is now profitable, she said.

The first months of the pandemic were rough.

Tarakdian said they lost half of their 100 clients during the pandemic, but are now back to 160.

Brazil Start

Born and raised in Brazil where she studied ballet at Vera Bublitz Dance Company and School for 10 years, Tarakdian performed in numerous presentations as a main character, soloist and in the ballet corps.

In 1999, she moved to the U.S. and performed with various dance companies.

Ferreira was also born and raised in Brazil, where he discovered and developed his “passion for helping to bring health, happiness and quality of life to people of all ages,” according to the website.

The post Full Body Pilates Bounces Back From COVID-19 appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

He grew with the company, quickly rising through the ranks from designer to project architect within his first year.

Armstrong led an office in San Fernando Valley before he and his partner Jim Williams were offered the chance to buy and take over the company in 1992 from founders Bill Ware and Bill Malcomb.

“We worked together to form our vision for the company and see what we can do with it,” Armstrong, who goes by Larry, told the Business Journal.

Ware Malcomb has since become one of Orange County’s largest architectural firms, with nearly 800 employees spanning 28 offices across the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Last year, the international firm made $73.4 million locally in annual revenue and $209 million companywide.

The Business Journal honored Armstrong, who now serves as chairman of the company, on March 20 with an Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award for his leadership at Ware Malcomb. The event was held at the Irvine Marriott with a crowd of more than 300 people.

Ohio Roots

Armstrong is an Ohio native and grew up in a town called Painesville, near Cleveland.

He met his wife, Sandra, while in high school and the two attended Kent State University.
Armstrong, who knew he wanted to be an architect ever since his youth, received two degrees in architecture and spent a semester studying abroad in Florence, Italy.

Armstrong is still involved with his alma mater and has served on the school’s foundation board for the last 15 years.

He and his wife are co-chairs of a $350 million campaign originally launched in 2021 that will help fund scholarships and new student programs.

The campaign has already surpassed its goal, having raised more than $370 million, and will end this June, according to Armstrong.

Creative Leader

Armstrong has been an artist his whole life, but only started to publicly display his work in the last 14 years.

He said that being an artist has helped him think more creatively about growing a business.

“As an artist, you’re unrestrained,” Armstrong said.

“In architecture, you’re creative, but you’re restrained by client wishes, building codes, budgets and all kinds of things.”

One of the first things he did as chief executive was diversify the business, to make it less vulnerable to the economic ups and downs of the commercial real estate market.

Over the years, the company diversified into multiple industries including interior design, healthcare and civil engineering.

Ware Malcomb hit a peak in 2022 when it counted over 1,000 employees and has since “scaled back a bit because of the economy,” Armstrong said.

“We’re still very strong and look forward to growing again soon,” Armstrong said.

Multifaceted Life

Armstrong enjoys living a multifaceted life.

He stepped down as CEO in 2020 in part to pursue other interests.

Nowadays, Armstrong keeps himself busy with philanthropy and other creative projects.

Armstrong is currently vice chair of local nonprofit Orange County United Way and will be chairman next term.

He became involved in the group after witnessing the increasing number of tents and makeshift shelters in Orange County coming out of the Great Recession in the late 2000s.

He met with executives at Orange County United Way, the start of a partnership that led to the formation of the United to End Homelessness initiative in 2018 with Armstrong as chairman.

The initiative, which seeks to provide long-term housing and supportive care, partners with local property owners and landlords to secure housing for people experiencing homelessness with housing vouchers.

More than 1,000 individuals have been housed through its landlord incentive program in the last five years, according to Armstrong.

“We’ve come up with a lot of innovative ways to break down barriers and get people housed faster,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong has also been working on a book titled “Layered Leadership” that’s set to be published early next year.

The book centers around the strategies and concepts that helped Armstrong build a business, as well as some of his biggest influences, such as General Electric CEO Jack Welch and the book “Freakonomics.”

“At this phase of my life, I love being involved in all these different things,” he said. n

Renaissance Approach

When Lawrence Armstrong isn’t working at Ware Malcomb, he can often be found painting in his art studio at home.

Armstrong describes his art style as “modern, abstract and colorful in nature,” influenced by artists Jackson Pollock and Frank Stella to name a few.

His art has taken him around the world, having exhibited in different galleries in Florence, Madrid and in Orange County, where he resides.

Armstrong said he has a “renaissance approach to life” with his background as an artist, architect and chairman of the Irvine-based international architectural firm.

“I have noticed that the many passions in my life similarly manifest through me,” Armstrong said on the website for his art.

As for upcoming projects, Armstrong was recently commissioned by his alma mater Kent State University in Ohio to contribute a sculpture to a sculpture park on campus.

The post Lawrence Armstrong: Designing an Architecture Powerhouse appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The aim of Katz, Ruby & Carle LLP is to be the “go-to firm for high-stakes and complex business, commercial, and intellectual property cases.” To reach that goal, the upstart firm plans to unite top lawyers from the full spectrum of age groups.

Katz himself is 59 while name partners Nathan Carle and Byron Ruby are 41 and 34, respectively. The fourth lawyer, Adam Sechooler, is 41 years old.

As a result, Katz said, the firm aligns with clients with both traditional and cutting-edge legal needs, showing a strong understanding of the local bench and bar, and the technological and business savvy its clients expect.

“We are refining the boutique model in several ways, but they all represent a return to a traditional model that emphasized professionalism and long-term loyalty,” Katz said.

That starts with creating equity—an ownership share in the firm—at an early stage.

Most Talented

“We believe that the most talented tier of younger lawyers is less willing to trade long hours now for the perhaps illusory promise of equity much later,” Katz said.

He said he’s been “at a good number of boutiques by now, and the older lawyers in most contexts treat the clients as their own property.”

Katz started as an associate at the ultra-prestigious Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York in 1993, and ended up putting in the backbreaking hours expected of newcomers, along with developing a dose of paranoia about feedback from his older colleagues.

Cycle-Breaking

“I decided to break the cycle and go even-steven with partners from different generations and give them the equity that they want up front,” he told the Business Journal on March 6.
Each person will get “an equity share.”

Another feature: the “duty to voice dissent” when called for.

He said his four-lawyer firm is already “attracting a lot of attention” from lawyers who don’t want to work 60 hours a week in a subordinate role. He plans to hire three to five more attorneys this year.

“We have a ton of work—we’re turning it away,” Katz said.

The client list is already varied. He said the biggest is chip company MaxLinear Inc. (Nasdaq: MXL) of Carlsbad, while others include chip company Litrinium of Mssion Viejo; Quality Health Partners Inc. of Santa Ana and opioid and addiction treatment company BioCorRx Inc. (OTC: BICX) of Anaheim.

Newport Council

Katz’s law firm, located across the street from South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, is also involved in a free speech case involving the 2022 race for Newport Beach City Council.

“The top tier of the next generation has strong advocacy skills, has faced stiff competition, and possesses valuable insight—they do not want to be a cog in the machine.”

Katz added: “As a legal community, we need to give young legal talent a voice and a stake in the enterprise. In some quarters, that is heresy.

“To do this profession well sometimes requires a lot of hard work.  But that is different than demanding a set number of billable hours—which we do not do,” Katz said.

According to Carle, “big firms are counting on clients to pay ever-increasing fees to ever larger teams of lawyers tasked with often overlapping assignments and duplicative effort, without delivering superior results.”

The post Michael Katz Revamps Boutique Law Firm Model appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Founder and Chief Executive Dmitriy Hanuka prefers to describe his Irvine-based firm as a “growth partner” and counts over 2,000 customers from a range of industries including construction, automotive, healthcare and more. 3D Media typically manages multimillion-dollar budgets, Hanuka said.

The agency still specializes in photography, video production and website development, such as creating 3D virtual tours, and has developed additional services over the years to round out its client offerings.

The 3D team also trains clients on establishing a presence on review sites like Yelp and Google, helps set up IT services, develops marketing and customer service strategies, and more.

Each project is determined after a consultation where gaps are found in the company’s existing operations, such as a poor website or little to no reviews on Yelp.

This has led to ongoing revenue growth, with sales increasing nearly 50% year-over-year in 2023, according to Hanuka. The executive declined to disclose exact figures.

“Ultimately, what we do is help people expose themselves to the world,” Hanuka told the Business Journal. “The best advertising is not simply selling, it’s educating.”

Advertising Pieces

Hanuka started in the industry in 2006, creating digital marketing campaigns for car dealerships and convenience stores.

In 2012, Hanuka co-founded Grip Sense, which created protective cases for mobile devices.

It was acquired by manufacturer Gigastone Corp. a couple years later. He was also overseeing a firm that specialized in website development, called OCD Squad.

The executive was hired by Gigastone as director of product management. After leading the operations and marketing of cellphones, cameras and memory devices for three years, Hanuka said he wanted to leave the corporate environment to “take things into his own hands.”

Having bought his first digital camera in high school, he combined his knowledge of photography and videography with the website building and leadership skills he had gained and created 3D Media in 2017. Advertising services were the final piece of the puzzle, he noted.

He credited his wife, Jeanette, for her advice to establish in-house teams for editing and a contractor network for other services when 3D Media first began providing imagery and footage for real estate firms.

Now, 3D Media is one of the top advertising partners for Yelp and Google with the highest retention rates among other media firms, Hanuka said.

Global

The agency has no plans to slow down in acquiring new customers and is investing in its internal operations and technology.

Currently, 3D Media has a core group of about 80 year-round businesses that generate most of its revenue, according to the CEO.

3D Media has photographed and filmed reels for Colombia sportswear, Century 21 in Irvine and local hospitals at their opening events. The team has built an online presence for multiple small businesses such as air conditioning companies, florists, brokerages and others.

With 40 employees companywide, Hanuka knows adding and training more people will help him scale.

“We’re not here for the short-term game,” Hanuka said.

The post 3D Media’s Full-Service Model Fuels Growth appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The 19 companies included in the Business Journal’s list of advertising agencies reported combined revenue fell 1.6% to $1.04 billion in 2023.

Several firms told the Business Journal that they had good retention of clients throughout last year, despite a few clients cutting budgets in areas like ad placements.

Larger national advertisers traditionally cut back on expenditures in expectation of a recession; despite the consensus for a recession at the onset of 2023, a resilient economy ultimately made those fears unfounded.

Costa Mesa-based SCS saw annual revenue fall 32% to $55 million, largely due to a sportswear retailer pulling back on their media spend last year as well as clients concerned about a possible recession in 2023.

“We will continue to keep the throttle down on driving the best possible results for our clients,” Chief Executive James Schiefer told the Business Journal of approaching 2024 “with optimism.”

“Acquiring new clients continues to be a challenge as competition continues to grow and diversify,” Gigasavvy’s Kyle Johnston said.

The Laguna Beach-based agency reported 2023 revenue of $14.9 million, up 7.2% from the year prior, and ranked No. 11.

The largest agency by revenue, Innocean USA in Huntington Beach, made several new hires in the creative department with Jason Sperling coming on as chief creative officer and Steven Nishimura as its new chief digital officer last year.

“Everyone has come in with a fresh perspective on advertising,” Innocean’s Managing Director Mark Weinfeld told the Business Journal.

Client Activity

A variety of new clients were added to local portfolios last year.

Innocean welcomed four new companies—Korean Air, Seaworld, Nexon and Jinro—while losing UMass Global. The Surf City agency remains in the top spot on the list with an estimated 2023 revenue approaching $400 million.

The company has been expanding beyond its initial automotive focus for the past several years. Existing clients include Wienerschnitzel and Hyundai.

Gigasavvy signed Brea hat maker Flexfit and homebuilder D.R. Horton.

The list’s fastest grower was Irvine-based No. 12 Rhythm with an 18% increase in revenue to $13 million.

“Rhythm experienced accelerated growth in two primary services lines respectively focused on Media Services and Customer Lifecycle Communications Programs through CRM,” CEO Peter Bohenek told the Business Journal.

“Greater demand in email and media buying accounted for revenue increases. On a post-pandemic level, Rhythm continues to hire OC based as well as remote candidates to bolster deeper specialization across our six core services of: Web, Search, CRM, Content, Media and Analytics.”

AI Curators

Employee headcount in OC for those on the list fell 5.1% to 1,369 people; however, companywide employees grew 6.1% across the board.

Eight of the 19 agencies reported a decline in employees at their Orange County offices.
A large innovation that may be affecting employee growth is the ramp of artificial intelligence.

“This past year, we’ve witnessed significant interest and changes in AI, data, technology,” SCS’s Schiefer said.

He added that the agency had already been leveraging AI in behind-the-scenes operations and will continue leaning into the programming along with other technology designed to study and translate consumer insights and behavior. SCS was acquired by Toronto-based PopReach Corp. last year and recently integrated a firm called Contobox to improve collecting first-party data.

“With the prospect of AI changing this landscape even more, we will continue to position ourselves around offerings that humans do best and ones that drive big, bottom-line results for our clients,” Gigasavvy’s Johnston said.

Innocean is focused on making AI more user-friendly for ad agencies. The firm is working with Getty and Adobe on building a library of rights-free images, which could help with the issue of AI-generated images based off licensed art.

“In order to embrace it, agencies have to become curators,” Weinfeld said. “The curators are the ones choosing the images to tell the story and make it the most effective and efficient.”

The post Ad Agencies’ OC Revenue Falls 1.6% appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

“Our punk version of ‘Sweet Caroline’ is a crowd favorite,” Kennedy said of the Neil Diamond classic from the late 1960s.

Kennedy recently took over the managing shareholder role at the firm, whose Irvine office ranks No. 10 on this week’s list of largest law firms in Orange County.

In his off hours, Kennedy can sometimes be found as the lead singer in the rock band Attractive Nuisance, which performs at the Law Rocks Battle of the Bands, a global charity event.

The Battle of the Bands is held every year at the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood and other venues around the world.

Last year, the LA show raised more than $250,000 over two nights, a record amount, with the event including performances from 13 bands, Kennedy told the Business Journal on March 5.

“My band—including lawyers from Buchalter, Allen Matkins, Doll Amir & Eley, and Latham & Watkins—has won the competition four times over the years,” Kennedy told the Business Journal on Feb. 23.

He said the band has pulled back a bit, and now only plays two to four times per year.

The next Law Rocks is on March 23, and Attractive Nuisance will be playing a charity performance to benefit the Ketchum YMCA in downtown Los Angeles.

‘Huge Departure’

“Being on stage is a huge departure from my normal, buttoned-up attorney persona,” Kennedy said. “It’s like an alter ego comes out. I get to leave everything behind and just have fun.”

He practiced in Los Angeles for 10 years and came back to OC about a year and a half ago.

His post as new office managing shareholder of Buchalter’s OC outpost was announced in January.

Prior to joining Buchalter, Kennedy was with Jones Day and Latham & Watkins.

Kennedy says there is nothing in his current firm’s OC office that needs revamping or overhauling.

He added: “We look forward to a lot more growth in Orange County.”

One of Buchalter’s largest offices, the Irvine office, has more than 100 employees, including over 60 attorneys with particular strengths in corporate, litigation, intellectual property, real estate, insolvency, healthcare and white-collar crime law.

Kennedy wants to see “a lot more lawyers joining the firm in our core practice areas.”
His conservative estimate is that the OC office aims to add “somewhere between five and 10” lawyers this year.

“Most of our growth at Buchalter is through laterals,” Kennedy said.

Last year, Buchalter celebrated its 40th anniversary in Orange County. The firm in total counts about 470 attorneys at its 12 offices spread across California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado and Tennessee.

Real Estate Work

Kennedy handles a lot of real estate disputes and corporate disputes that relate to governance and finance.

He serves as chair of the firm’s Partnership Evaluation and Recruiting Committees, co-chair of the Pro Bono Committee, and member of the Strategic Planning Committee.

Kennedy routinely handles real estate disputes involving owners, developers, landlords and commercial tenants. He regularly represents clients in disputes involving corporate financing, governance and operations.

He also has significant experience defending consumer class actions and handling disputes involving contracts, unfair competition and fiduciary relationships.

The post Buchalter High-Stakes Litigator Rockin’ Right Along appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Mosca served as interim CEO since June 1, following the departure of Brian Probolsky. Mosca previously served as the director of Communications and External Affairs for OCPA.

Since its start in 2020, the entity has received criticism from both conservative and progressive politicians, some of whom won elections on platforms to abolish it or fire its chief executive. It’s lost customers like the County of Orange while Huntington Beach plans to leave.

The agency, which has more than 231,000 customers, received 126 applications for the top job and interviewed four candidates.

“After a comprehensive multinational search for the CEO of the Orange County Power Authority, the board of directors has elected to select Mr. Joe Mosca to lead the agency into the next chapter,” Chair Fred Jung said in a statement. “Mr. Mosca’s deep expertise in the energy sector and local government have been a tremendous asset to the Orange County Power Authority.”

Prior to joining OCPA, Mosca was a founding member and the former chair of the San Diego Community Power board of directors and also worked with San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas Company. Additionally, Mosca served as the Mayor of Sierra Madre in Los Angeles County and the Deputy Mayor of Encinitas in San Diego County.

Mosca holds a Juris Doctorate from Quinnipiac University School of Law and is an active member of the California Bar Association.

The post OC Power Authority Names Permanent CEO appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

“Law practice in OC is certainly booming and has returned to its pre-COVID vitality,” said Samantha Dorey, a ­founding partner of Irvine-based Everett Dorey LLP.

Her civil litigation firm in the past year grew from 24 lawyers to 30 today, helping it move up 13 spots to No. 35 on the Business Journal’s annual list of OC’s top law firms.

The list, which ranks firms by the number of attorneys they have in the county, includes 94 firms with at least 10 local attorneys.

Those 94 firms count 2,996 OC lawyers, up 15 attorneys from a year ago.

As of March 2020, near the outset of the pandemic, the top 91 legal firms here counted 2,785 OC lawyers. Since then, the ranks of lawyer employment have risen almost 8%.

Work Carries On

While courthouses practically closed during COVID, litigation never stopped, Dorey told the Business Journal last week.

“With the backlog of cases finally making it to trial, there is a need more than ever for reliable trial attorneys, which has fueled our growth,” Dorey said.

“Litigation will continue to be a growth area this year and next,” she said. “We continue to see high stakes complex matters involving public entities, a surge in employment law and new and emerging areas in environmental law.

“With clients calling us at the 11th hour looking for capable trial attorneys for catastrophic cases, our trial work will continue to be a healthy part of our practice.”

Similar trends were seen at the Irvine office of Michelman & Robinson LLP, whose firm handles commercial, class action and cross-border litigation, among other areas.

“Trials seem to be starting up again, and jury trials in person appear to be on the rise,” said Mona Hanna, the OC managing partner of Michelman & Robinson’s local office, which counts 14 local lawyers.

She’s also the firm’s National Complex & Class Action Trial Chair.

Hanna cited a “more aggressive posture” in business disputes, “leading to more trials.”

Partner Counts Down

Companywide, firms on this week’s law firms list boosted their lawyer counts by 2.8% to 43,653, spread out among 1,334 offices.

One area of limited growth: the number of OC partners on the list fell 0.5% last year, to 1,357. That’s still up 7% from 2020 levels.

The 94 firms on this year’s list also reported their OC employee count grew 2.2% over the past year to 5,708.

Top Slots

Knobbe Martens with 141 OC lawyers and Rutan & Tucker LLP with 135 retained the top two slots on the list, while their local attorney levels stayed generally unchanged over the past year.

“We’re very happy with the size of our firm, and I don’t anticipate any significant growth in headcount this year. At our current size, we are ideally positioned to continue providing exceptional service to our clients,” Steven Nataupsky, Knobbe Martens’ managing partner, told the Business Journal.

“The last several years have been among the busiest ever for the firm—we’ve actually eclipsed pre-pandemic levels of activity,” he added.

“2024 is off to a great start for us as well, and while there remains uncertainty in the market, I’m optimistic looking towards the rest of the year. We’re fortunate to have a tremendous base of clients in Orange County and across the country and globe who continually turn to us for their most critical IP work.”

Knobbe Martens has made national headlines for its work representing Irvine’s Masimo Corp. (Nasdaq: MASI) in the device maker’s­ varied trade secret cases against Apple Inc. (Nasdqq: AAPL).

Notables

Los Angeles-headquartered Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP ranked third on the list with 99 lawyers locally, followed by Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP’s Costa Mesa office in fourth place with 92 while Newport Beach-based Bremer, Whyte, Brown & O’Meara LLP was fifth with 88.

No. 6 Latham & Watkins LLP, which has 87 attorneys at its Costa Mesa office, is the biggest firm companywide on the list, reporting 3,727 attorneys altogether.

A growing firm on the list is Mortenson, Taggart Adams LLP in Irvine, which has grown from 14 lawyers last year to 20 today.

“Growth in our attorney and staff numbers has been driven largely by significant increases in client demand for our services. We anticipate adding three more attorneys to our Orange County office by the end of the summer of 2024, including two recent UCI law graduates.

And we anticipate additional growth in our Bay Area office,” Managing Partner Michael Mortenson said.

—With assistance from OCBJ Research Director Raymond Dinh

The post Post-Pandemic Era Ups Lawyer Demand appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

“The more I learned, the more exceptional I found the firm,” Florman told the Business Journal on Feb. 15.

Florman, an M&A, venture capital and corporate partner, joined directly from Buchalter, where he spent more than 16 years in management.

Paul Tobin, also a corporate practice group partner, joined Haynes and Boone OC in early January, like Florman coming from Buchalter.

Partners Elizabeth Weldon and Kevin Crisp, both litigators, joined the firm in Costa Mesa late last year.

Transactional partner David Hengstler joined the Orange County office in Costa Mesa in late February.

The additions boost Haynes and Boone’s local practice to 31 attorneys; it ranks No. 31 in a four-way tie on this week’s list of largest law firms in OC.

The firm counts over 40 major practice areas, with a focus on energy, technology, financial services and private equity.

High Profile

Florman, an Orange County native, has more than 30 years of experience.

He represents global, middle market and emerging growth companies in general corporate matters, finance, mergers and acquisitions, complex corporate restructuring matters and intellectual property transactional matters.

His clients include healthcare companies, music and technology companies, and insurance agencies and brokers.

“This office has some very high-profile clients,” said Florman, a North Tustin resident, though he declined to discuss clients by name.

Haynes and Boone has 16 offices across the country, as well as in Shanghai and Mexico City. In total it has about 700 attorneys.

At Buchalter, Florman was a member of the firm’s board of directors and was the managing shareholder of its Orange County office.

The post Haynes and Boone OC Picks Up 5 More Partners appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The deal marks the largest reported funding round for a privately held company based in Orange County so far this year.

The funding round was led by a new investor in the company, Questa Capital, a San Francisco-based healthcare venture capital firm, with participation from existing investors of the company.

Questa co-founder and Managing Partner Brad Sloan will join PatientFi’s board of directors as part of the deal.

PatientFi, founded in 2017, has now raised close to $70 million to date, co-founder and CEO Todd Watts told the Business Journal.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been positioned better for success than we are right now,” Watts said.

PatientFi said it will put the latest funding toward amping up sales and marketing, launching new products and developing more partnerships, particularly in the fertility space.

The company generated about $45 million in revenue last year and has nearly doubled its revenue every year since its founding, according to Watts.

Growing Network

PatientFi is in every state, and has added over 4,000 practices to its provider network since 2019, according to Watts.

The company’s network includes providers across the plastic surgery, medical spas and dentistry industries, with an emphasis on medical aesthetics.

PatientFi last year added 1,359 providers, increasing its network by almost 50%.

Through its partnerships with banks and credit unions, PatientFi can provide loans from $200 to $50,000 to pay for more expensive elective procedures.

PatientFi collects fees on transactions from clinics and financial entities that buy its loans.

“98% of our patients apply on the phone or in any office, get an immediate approval and can check out that exact same day with providers getting paid within 24 hours,” Watts said.
Privi Program

Watts said PatientFi has expanded beyond just patient financing.

“Something we’ve built out and will continue to invest in is loyalty programs,” Watts said.
The company is continuing to build out its subscription platform called Privi, which launched last April.

Privi, a first-of-its-kind “aesthetics membership platform,” allows patients to pay for beauty products and services on a subscription-based model while earning loyalty rewards.

Instead of paying a large sum each time they go for a visit, patients pay monthly for an annual treatment plan that’s customized to them.

“Practices love it because it keeps patients coming back while patients get to pay over time,” Watts said.

Prices range from $99 a month for four annual toxin injections up to $269 a month for services such as lip filler, laser resurfacing and body contouring.

PatientFi partnered with Swiss dermatology company Galderma for Privi, and since launching, has seen “huge success across the country with the product and enrollment,” Watts said.

Privi last September was the recipient of the Best in Consumer Technology Innovation Award at Octane’s High Tech Awards.

The medical aesthetics industry is an “enormous untapped market opportunity,” according to company officials.

They say the industry has climbed 10% annually since 2010 and is forecasted to grow to $40 billion over the next several years.

CORRECTION: A bio on Todd Watts, included in last week’s listing of nominees for the 2024 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards, incorrectly identified his title at PatientFi. He is the CEO.

The post PatientFi Lands $25M In Series B Round appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.