When Cyrus Massoumi ruptured his eardrum (during a flight), he tried to find a qualified ENT. Unfortunately, the process took a grueling four days.Interestingly enough, this experience was the spark for an interesting venture: ZocDoc. In fact, the company recently announced a $3 million round of funding from Khosla Ventures.
True, the online healthcare space is fairly crowded with major players like Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). However, while they are focused on medical records, ZocDoc's mission is on something that often gets neglected – searching and scheduling of physicians. With ZocDoc, patients can search the database on criteria such as specialty, location and insurance qualifications (which can be critical). All in all, it's an interesting idea with a large market potential.
As of now, ZocDoc is only limited to Manhattan and Brooklyn. Moreover, the site has only a few specialty categories, such as dental and dermatology. But all this should change soon since the company now has some capital to move things forward.
Currently, the site has about 30,000 registered users and the growth rate is a torrid 50% per month -- an indication there is a serious need for the service.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook
Will Rich Ross really have a positive impact on Disney's movie operations?
Consumers sick of recession, may spend extra on holidays
Corrections, seasonality and Santa Claus
