Dive Brief:
- Abhas Gupta, a venture capitalist at Mohr Davidow Partners, recently demoted online healthcare scheduling service Zocdoc from "unicorn" to "Donkey Watch" on his blog.
- Gupta says the company, as well as Oscar Healthcare and others, fail the Fundamental Law of Growth - the lifetime value of a customer must be at least three times the cost of acquiring a customer.
- Zocdoc CEO Oliver Kharraz isn't concerned about the demotion. The company recently rebranded and is currently searching for a new headquarters in New York City.
Dive Insight:
The company's latest funding round brought in $130 million and the company is now nationwide and covers 60% of the population. Its web tool pools unused appointment spots on doctors' schedules and makes them available to the public. Kharraz was recently chosen by NYC's Mayor Bill de Blasio to participate in a "tech talent pipeline" to connect city students and recent graduates to jobs in the sector.
Kharraz told the New York Business Journal, "I have never spent much time worried about monikers of animals." He added the company remains focused and in his latest blog wrote, "Simply put, we'll keep building the better healthcare experience that patients want and deserve."
Zocdoc is considered the fourth largest New York-based tech startup.