Blog

We at Supply Clinic will be opening up our site to all users in the next few weeks. Naturally, this means that I’ve taken a bit of time to read up on the early strategies of today’s software and online giants, especially the ones that pioneered technical solutions and growth strategies that so many other businesses have come to emulate.

Google is always a good place to start. The company’s Gmail rollout is fascinating, and largely uninstructive for anyone who isn’t already some sort of internet behemoth. When Google began its foray into the world of email, its signature change was a significantly improved ability to search through old emails. Of course, searching isn’t of much value when you only have access to 10 MB of old emails. So Google also decided to allow all users to store up to 1 gigabyte of archived emails, an order of magnitude more than competitors. The catch was simple- Google would also use its vaunted search algorithm to scan through users’ emails and provide targeted ads based on the content of those emails.

A major goal of ours here at Supply Clinic is to allow dentists and doctors to focus on patient care, and worry less about the supplies they’re buying. By bringing the market together on a single platform, we take the guesswork and negotiating out of what should be a simple process.

In doing so, we have the opportunity to help not only patients across the country, but their incredible health care providers. One of these individuals is my close friend Aws AlDarkazali.

On April 21, Google began to change its algorithm for mobile searches. Websites which aren’t mobile-friendly (big buttons, uncluttered text) were penalized, dropping in rankings of searches done on mobile devices. Google constantly tweaks its search algorithm to make sure the most relevant content shows up on top. 

Google released a guide detailing exactly what it’s looking for in terms of mobile-friendliness. And unlike with previous algorithm tweaks, Google let users and developers know months ahead of time about the change and promised a slow rollout, so as to avoid dramatic overnight changes. But this change still caught the public’s attention. (Unless you’ve never heard of this before, in which case it at least caught Matt Drudge’s attention, and the attention of all of these lovely people on Twitter.)

Yesterday, I watched the season premiere of HBO’s show Silicon Valley, which I highly recommend to those who have either HBO accounts or friends with HBO accounts. (I also highly recommend making friends who have HBO accounts.) The comedy show does a reasonably good job of bringing some of the absurdities of startup life to the small screen. Navigating venture capitalists, dealing with technological issues, participating in startup competitions, it all comes with the territory.

Six years ago I met Stephen, a college junior from the University of Arkansas majoring in biology. We were both in Costa Rica, participating in a study abroad program focusing on tropical ecology. Despite us both having majored in biology, I continued on to become a dentist, and Stephen has pursued is lifelong passion for photography. With an immediate need for background pics, headshots, and other photos for Supply Clinic, I recently reached out to Stephen to give us a hand.