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Some people are just destined to become entrepreneurs. They have an innovative instinct to solve growing problems in society. Tobi Bosede, CEO of DentalFynd, a payment platform that gets patients upfront dental care pricing, is one of those founders. Recognized as one of. “12 women in machine learning to watch” by Samasource and a 2023 digitalundivided Do You Fellow, Bosede is a leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).
Her passion for leading high-impact initiatives and solving complex technical problems led her to create her startup. Now, Bosede is on the path to alleviate the suffering of millions of patients by making surprise medical bills a thing of the past with upfront prices.
Read on to learn how this digitalundivided founder’s company democratizes dentistry for all while disrupting the healthcare industry!
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digitalundivided: What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs on their business journey — something that’s helped you along the way as well?
Tobi Bosede, Dental Fynd: You don’t know what you don’t know. Be open to feedback, even if that doesn’t necessarily mean that you take it. It might not be wrapped in the package you want. Be able to filter through potentially poor packaging. For me also, listening is really important. My piece of advice is feedback is important, and just always view it in a positive light.
digitalundivided: What do you consider the most valuable leadership virtue in the business world from your perspective?
Tobi Bosede, Dental Fynd: I would have to say listening. You don’t have to agree with what people are saying, but people want to be heard. Also, I find that you bond better with people that way, and you just learn more about what you need to do, because a lot of times, there’s value in that feedback. Even if it’s something that you don’t necessarily like or agree with, it’s still that understanding that that perception exists, or it’s still something to be aware of and be mindful of. Especially for me, being a first-time founder and even for serial entrepreneurs, when you’re doing something for the first time that’s never been created, there’s just going to be a lot you don’t know.
digitalundivided: What does success mean to you as a founder?
Tobi Bosede, Dental Fynd: Success means adding value — being happy doing what I’m doing and creating value for others. When I say adding value, I mean having an impact, not just for one person or a handful of people. But, for me, the vision is this is something that’s nationwide, and it disrupts the world the same way Uber disrupted the world because we are Uber for dentistry. We’re Uber for dental care in terms of real-time on-demand pricing for the future state of the product. That’d be a success to me.
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digitalundivided: How do you think digitalundivided’s Do You Fellowship program helped you navigate your founder journey?
Tobi Bosede, Dental Fynd: There’s been two main ways. I think the founder community is one which I think a lot of other programs provide — just having a group of peers doing the same thing. That’s always nice, like a support group. More concretely, I think something that might be more unique to digitalundivided is that it seems the program can be flexible to some degree to help founders with their specific challenges. For example, I recently had an investor reception, and the fact that I was able to get coaching from Fearless communicators was super helpful. Also, being able to leverage the connections that digitalundivided has, or at least having access to that, is a plus. Even interacting with other founders from other programs is a great opportunity. I think you can cater what you get out of digitalundivided to what you need. It’s one of those things where you get what you put in out of it, you make the most of the fellowship. if you are able to see certain opportunities and capitalize on them.
Learn more about 2023’s digitalundivid Do You Fellows and their first ever pitch competition, sponsored by Prudential and held during Newark Tech Week here.