Today we’d like to introduce you to Brent Brudwick.
Hi Brent, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My start in DFW stems from relocating from South Dakota after graduating from law school in 2015. During law school my coursework had an emphasis in Healthcare Law, Insurance, Business, and other applicable courses to be able to pursue a career in the medical field. I obtained a position in the Compliance Department at a Healthcare Company that specialized in ancillary services for medical providers. That quickly exposed me to building and running laboratories, surgery center, and physician practices. Through my time there I was able to build relationships that would be influential to where things are now. After my time spent there for a few years, I was able to work with some partners who believed in the vision, to launch BioSTAT. We started small for over a year trying to compete against the big guys in physician offices, but it is very tough when your facing publicly traded companies with massive market share. It took some time to pivot and get all the pieces together in the beginning, but we were able find direction and put everything together to hard launch into a more niche market toward the end of 2019.
We started with a core focus on geriatrics as there is a very significant gap in services (we felt) and we wanted to focus on an area we truly could make an impact. This included (with growing pains too long to list) building from scratch, a 24/7, 365-day operation specializing in STAT services. It is an astronomical amount of moving parts that was quite the whirlwind, looking back. But, fast forward six months from launch and we were up to around 30 employees and were servicing around 8,000 geriatric beds in the area, around the clock. Originally, we were built exclusively for bedside mobile laboratory services. After building out the core infrastructure, we were able to launch a second line of ancillary services in mobile imaging, BioSTAT Imaging. This was an add-on service that worked very well in offering to our particular client-base, as well as the one-stop-shopping with shared management, under one roof.
During the same period, we worked with one of the partners of BioSTAT to integrate his Home Health Company, Senior Solutions, under our shared management structure. We saw an opportunity here to further combine these related geriatric services to build a more robust offering touching more aspects of our patients’ healthcare needs. We continued to expand all three businesses to present day. We currently have 80+ employees and service over 17,000 patient beds on the laboratory side, 8,500 beds for mobile imaging, and currently servicing anywhere from 50-70 patients for Home Health during a month period. We have continued to work on growing and improving our services. We recently have expanded back into the physician office market, as well as continuing the efforts on Covid to help assist our clients. I have had the pleasure to be in the driver’s seat as the Director over this Company since inception, and it has been the most exciting thing I have been able to be a part of, both personally and professionally. To be able to build the staff, the processes, and work in every aspect from start to finish has been one of the most rewarding things you can do as an Entrepreneur… especially when it succeeds.
I have been able to learn and grow myself, invest in others, and watch them grow within our company. We have been able to make a positive impact, locally, as well. Six years ago, I would have never imagined this being where I am. BioSTAT has a lot on the horizon and we are excited to keep moving in the direction we are currently heading. We have more services we want to build on that fit into our system to further make an impact for all levels of the geriatric market from the home, the doctors office, to the facility level.
I can say with all honesty, I owe a lot of thanks and a lot of favors to many, to include all of the mentors that have taught me, the people that have inspired me, the risks taken on financially by those who believe in me, the people willing to give me a chance, and all those that have supported me on all levels inside and outside the business. I have amazing partners that motivate me every single day. I have staff that I am forever indebted to for helping build all of this. I have strong friends and family that have always believed in me. I have a rock in my spouse that has sacrificed more over the last 11 years than I could ever repay. Her support and tolerance for my craziness has allowed me to pursue my education up through graduating law school, and to chase my aspirations no matter how crazy they have been. I get to wake up every day and spend my time on something I am passionate about to its core, and although extremely stressful, and overwhelming at times, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. At 33 years old I am just getting started and I look forward to the future for BioSTAT and what we are building here in DFW!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Personally, it was winding and it tends to draw more sympathy then I desire, but I did have a troubled childhood that ended up taking me through the foster care system and the joys of those hurdles of being in the system. The good thing is I harnessed it and I earned everything I had from a young age. I developed a strong work ethic, and it made me tick a little different in my drive in life. As I tell the ones looking to pat my back, it does not hold a candle to things I have seen others go through so I don’t dwell on it. Honestly, I would not change a thing anyways so accept it and move on. What is a little adversity? Builds character.
Professionally, the struggles are MANY. Start with how hard it is to start a career in one of the largest cities with literally minimal job experience in medical. I was given a chance, thankfully, and I pounced on day one. I made it my mission to try and out-perform everyone around me. I constantly was looking to take on as much responsibility as I could to become irreplaceable. I was able to peck my way up quickly. I was being very mindful in absorbing and networking along the way. I committed an unhealthy amount of effort to my work and have never let off the pedal. Opportunities would open and I would try and make the best decisions and capitalize where I could.
Which brings me to this venture! First lesson learned: no matter how cool your product is, no matter how much of an issue you solve, and no matter the step you think you have on the competition, it all costs a lot of time and a lot of money. Had I been tasked with creating an 8-5 donut shop with six employees, I would have been done after a week, but the goal was a large scale diagnostic enterprise. The end game is so large that I still do not think we understand the monster we have created and are chasing. Medical is expensive. Diagnostics are expensive. It took so many things to align at the right times for this all to work to this point.
The craziest thing I have ever experienced is having a constant problem of not being able to afford to keep up with growth. What business would not salivate at 25% – 30% growth month over month since inception? It has not waivered, including through a world-wide pandemic. A bank won’t help you, you’re a start-up…your word does not pay the bills…nothing is free…you have to figure it out. I compare it to playing several board games at once. You have to make all the right moves at the exact right time, as well as under extreme duress and time constraint. You further have to do that with so much coming at you that it’s overwhelming almost 100% of the time. Your wearing so many hats from IT to plumber, to HR, it is so many balls in the air in a start-up. You do not learn to appreciate what the top is until sitting there. Most people work in an environment where there is someone above them to handle it. They get this luxury of not carrying the burden of being responsible for success or failure…..better yet the luxury of clocking out and forgetting about it until you clock back in. Now add on the stress of all your employees relying on the company for their families. The stress is insane.
My personal life has been non-existent, my health is neglected, my stress is way too high, and I obsess over my work. I consider it part of the sacrifices made to get where you want, but all are daily challenges. Every once in awhile you get a breather for a minute to recharge then its right back into the fire. Another challenge is being able to get to a place where you have to remove all emotion and self-interest and act for what is best for the company even if you have to sacrifice things you do not want to. It goes against human nature, but you learn quickly it is necessary to be successful.
Throughout this entire adventure pivots occurred many times. I have had to work with numerous people at different times to make extremely hard decisions to keep the company progressing. I have had to neutrally play multiple sides of deals trying to get things done that did not jive with what people wanted. That included investments, dilutions, hand-shake deals, and the like. All in the name of seeing this thing to the finish line. I am fortunate all things have always happened as needed, but it never just fell in my lap.
The last major obstacle was not only convincing myself this was possible, but was getting others to buy in as well. It is easy with two or three people, but scale up and it’s a job itself to maintain that high level of motivation and dedication from your staff. I have invested so much into our team to get to where we are. They have invested the same back. When you don’t always have the bells and whistles to motivate people you have to get creative in how you get them to buy in. I have been able to build a team that is as invested as I am in this. It was probably the hardest thing outside of the money side to get to where we are. We run around-the-clock services, dealing with, at times, life or death diagnostics and that takes a lot of moving parts all working in unison to be successful. There is not enough time to be here to see everything so your playing back seat quarterback at times trying to keep it all moving. With all that said, it is all things we were able to overcome and march on. It is not easy, but I am grateful where things are now and I have learned more than 20 years of college could offer you, and I get it for free, per se.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about BioSTAT?
BioSTAT offers Laboratory and Imaging services to a variety of clients exclusively in DFW. Our mission has been to focus on a tight geographical service area so we can focus on what is most important to our clients. That includes being able to reach them quickly and provide fast results. We service Long Term Acute Cares, Skilled Nursing Homes, Rehab Hospitals, and we provide lab services to physician offices with an emphasis on geriatric providers. We want to service as much of the healthcare compendium as we can specific to our geriatric patients so that we can improve the quality of care given. We have expanded into the Home Health market to be able to tie more pieces of the care cycle together and have more projects coming this year. We want to continually increase the value to the patients. We currently offer full range testing to include Chemistry, Special Chemistry, Microbiology, Infectious Diseases (including Covid PCR), and other core lab testing. We offer mobile imaging including Ultrasounds, EKGs, EEGs, and X-ray to facilities. We can service most areas of DFW as well for Home Health Services that includes physical and speech therapy, as well as general and special nursing needs.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
If you are serious about business, every single person you meet is valuable to you. Relationships are important to have and maintain as you never know when something you need is sitting inside your phone, e-mail, or LinkedIn contacts. Perfect example is my partner. I met him years ago before he retired and sold his medical billing company. I had not talked to him in a long time when our paths crossed again. It led to conversations that led to business dealings that ruined his retirement plans. He is now the majority investor and owner, as well as knee-deep in this enterprise. He never thought he would be un-retired, but our paths crossed at the right time and here we are. He was able to jump in and pour gas on the fire so we could go to the next level (and then did it multiple times as we continued to grow). I know he trusts me and believes in me and that has allowed me to really focus on the more important aspects like growth and fine-tuning the products. I still regularly am in contact with several people that have helped me or played a part as they are phenomenal resources to stay close with!
Remember that you do not know everything. Running things by people that know more than you is how you pull free knowledge. Countless times I have asked questions to people that give me great intel that helps me now and/or later. You have to constantly be searching to learn. Be forward thinking when it comes to your networking. I commit at least two hours a week (usually early morning) rabbit-holing LinkedIn. I find interesting people and companies and research those and you start putting pieces together you were not looking for. If they are willing to connect, thank them and keep the conversation going. One time I was day dreaming of Venture Capital stuff and ended up hitting up all these people high up at firms. Three days later I am on a conference call with some big shot company to talk about our companies and if we were sexy enough to VC. We were not even close in value to the investments they look at, but you know what? The dude took my call! I learned a lot through that conversation. He then introduced me to a friend of his that was in similar healthcare venture. That led to another call and a great contact where I did get some value. So always keep looking and mining! It’s not just about WHO you know. It is about WHO you know and WHEN you know them. I give credit to my partner/mentor as he drilled that into me that TIMING is everything. So capitalize on the people you come across, work with, etc., they are your greatest resource.
Contact Info:
- Email: bbrudwick@biostatdx.com
- Website: www.bioSTATdx.com
