Disrupting The Marketplace
For 30 Years
Written By: Jeff Easton
On April 1st, 2021, we celebrated as a company the opening of the Med One doors 30 years ago. I recently saw something that said, “the status quo is not good enough, disrupt or be disrupted.” As I reflected on this, I thought about Med One over the last 30 years – of which I have been with the company and the CFO for the last 14 years – and how Med One has consistently been a disrupter in the marketplace. It has been an amazing experience for me here at Med One, and we have been able to adapt and understand the market and what our customers, vendor partners, banks, and employees need. Simply put, we do a very good job at doing what we do best, and that is “Making Medical Equipment Available.”
We have done and tried many different things as a company over the last 30 years, and over the next 30 years, we will continue to try many different things as well. Some of the different things we have tried have been very successful, and others have not been. However, through all of the great things, hard things, successful things, and perhaps most important, the things that have not worked out, we have truly learned who we are, how to disrupt the marketplace, and what we do best, and that is “Making Medical Equipment Available.”
When Med One started 30 years ago, our President, CEO, and Co-Founder, Larry Stevens, already had nearly 20 years of experience in the banking, leasing, equipment, and rental world through different opportunities and employment that he had. I have heard him tell the story to me a few different times about the importance of a very short and simple document. Since the beginning, and still today, a vast majority of the business done by Med One (well over 90%) is done on an agreement that is less than two pages in length. We understand the medical business and what our customers need, and we have done things differently for our customers. This has disrupted the marketplace and allowed Med One to carve out a niche.
Another item that Med One did early on and still does today is learning and understanding the importance of what it takes to get paid in the medical world and what is important to our customers, so they will pay what they have committed to. As many of you will recall, in the late 1980s, a very new technology called the fax machine had become very popular. Until this time, the only way to transmit documents back and forth was via USPS mail or quicker delivery services such as FedEx and UPS. Early on in the existence of Med One, we did not require “original ink” signatures or certificates of incumbency. Again, we listened and understood what a customer needed and what would reduce their pain, so we accepted faxes, documents sent through the internet/email, and copies of signatures. This was a disruption to the marketplace and still is to this day. While there are now wonderful digital signature platforms that are used today, and we use them, we still accept documents sent via email and copies of documents – faxes, for the most part, are not used by many people. We understand the medical world and what is needed for our customers. This has disrupted the marketplace and allowed Med One to carve out a niche.
As we look at a transaction that is put in front of us, the approach of our two owners and our CCO is to find any possible way to do the transaction. Of course, there are times when we say no and we are not able to do the transaction; however, we have over a 90% approval/acceptance rate on the transactions that come to us. We trust our customers, we have taken the time to truly learn and understand them, we have worked with them and helped them get to know us, it has been a wonderful thing to be a part of. This has disrupted the marketplace and allowed Med One to carve out a niche.
Med One, over the last 30 years, has dabbled in different segments of the market but at the end of the day, what we do best is “Making Medical Equipment Available.” Over 99% of our business conducted is done in the medical world. With its emphasis on the medical industry, Med One has an understanding of the specific challenges healthcare professionals face. The Med One philosophy is simple: determine and exceed the needs of our customers. With every deal, our focus is to provide for our customers’ needs by helping them acquire equipment when they lack the funds to pay for it. Whether it’s equipment financing, equipment rental, equipment sales, or services, Med One has solutions that work. We are the only company that I am aware of that truly offers all these different solutions. We want to help our customers and have them do what is best for their own individual needs. We have gone out of our way to be agnostic about what a customer chooses as we want what is best for them and know that we truly do care about them. This has disrupted the marketplace and allowed Med One to carve out a niche.
Finally, the owners/founders of Med One have a different mentality and long-term goal than most individual owners have. This does not make them right or wrong; for better or worse, they just think about things in a different manner than most people would a business that they own and have built. Med One is family-based, and many of the owners’ family members are involved in the company. Med One has been created, formed, and brought along to be a legacy company. I am approached on a weekly basis to gauge interest on whether Med One is available for sale or what the plans are for the future. Med One has been built on sound financial principles and to provide a legacy to the customers we support and employees we employ. The goal of the ownership of Med One is not to sell the business and ride off into the sunset. They are involved daily with the business and truly love the business; it is part of their fabric; it is who they are. When decisions are made, they are well-thought-out with the long-term and legacy in mind. The two owners of Med One do not have to satisfy any other shareholders. There are no quarterly earnings that must be met. With the sound financial principles the company has been built on, Med One will be here for our customers and employees. We are not going anywhere. This has disrupted the marketplace and allowed Med One to carve out a niche.
Med One will continue to be the leader of companies in America that offer, as a whole, the different services mentioned above and many others. We will continue to evaluate and work with our vendors, customers, employees, and capital partners to develop different products and solutions that will enable healthcare professionals to provide the best patient care available. At the end of the day, we truly believe in our customers and the medical industry, but more importantly, our customers use the medical equipment we have helped them to obtain to take care of moms, dads, grandparents, nieces, nephews, cousins, siblings, spouses, and kids. These patients truly are our customers, and we are here as a family-based legacy company to ensure they will always be taken care of. This has disrupted the marketplace and allowed Med One to carve out a niche.