Dr. Steven Tran, a dentist in Altadena, CA, and owner of Summit Dental Arts, didn’t open his practice under ideal conditions. Permitting delays, community fires, and uncertainty hit just as everything was supposed to move forward. Instead of pulling back, he leaned into the challenge, focusing on systems, team culture, and patient-first marketing that allowed the practice to grow quickly without cutting corners.
What makes Steven’s story worth paying attention to isn’t just the growth, it’s how that growth happened. He didn’t chase shortcuts. Instead, he focused on systems, team culture, patient experience, and marketing that felt human rather than polished.
Opening a Practice When Everything Goes Sideways
Steven was days away from moving forward when fires tore through nearby communities. Homes were lost. Families displaced. The timing couldn’t have been worse.
Instead of forcing momentum, he slowed down and reframed the situation. Gratitude mattered. Perspective mattered. And leaning into the community, rather than retreating from it, became part of how the practice showed up from the very beginning.
Month One Wasn’t About Revenue
When Summit Dental Arts opened, Steven wasn’t chasing vanity metrics. He wasn’t obsessed with first-month production or patient counts.
He focused on fundamentals:
- Clean handoffs between team members
- A patient experience that felt intentional from the first phone call
- Systems that wouldn’t collapse under growth
Even months later, that mindset stuck. Numbers matter, but not before systems and culture can support them.
Team Culture Is the Real Growth Lever
Steven was clear about one thing, culture doesn’t come from the owner alone.
Early on, he focused on finding a culture anchor, someone who truly bought into the vision and could help uphold standards day-to-day. From there, hiring became intentional instead of reactive.
He didn’t wait until he was desperate to bring people on. If the right person showed up, he found a way to make it work. That approach prevented burnout, protected patient experience, and created a team that actually wanted to grow together.
Hiring an Associate Earlier Than Feels Safe
Many owners wait until schedules are bursting before hiring another clinician. Steven flipped that logic.
He knew early that he was optimizing for long-term capacity, not just personal production. Bringing on an associate allowed the practice to:
- Serve more patients without rushing care
- Shift leadership focus toward marketing and business growth
- Build a team identity beyond a single provider
One of the most telling signs? Reviews started naming other clinicians and staff, not just the owner. That’s when a practice starts to scale.
Marketing That Feels Like a Conversation
Steven didn’t rely on one channel, but he was clear about what worked best.
Google Ads provided a reliable baseline of new patients. Meta ads, when done right, created familiarity and trust before patients ever picked up the phone.
The difference was the message.
Instead of “Hi, I’m the dentist,” the ads spoke directly to patient pain points. The practice wasn’t the hero. The patient was. Summit Dental Arts showed up as the guide.
Short voiceovers, simple language, real clips. Nothing overproduced. Nothing stiff.
Patients regularly walked in saying, “You’re the dentist I’ve been seeing on Instagram.” Not because the account was huge, but because the message felt local and real.
Reviews Are Earned in Person
Steven was blunt about this, reviews don’t come from software alone.
The real driver was team buy-in. Asking in person. Making it part of the exit conversation. Following up thoughtfully.
Automation supported the process, but it never replaced human connection. The result was a steady stream of five-star reviews that reflected the actual experience, not a templated request.
Reviews didn’t just build trust, they also supported long-term Google visibility and helped patients find the practice in a competitive market.
Documenting the Journey Without an Agenda
Steven began sharing his startup journey online during a year off, long before opening the practice. It started as a creative outlet, not a lead strategy.
That transparency attracted the right people. Patients. Team members. Other dentists who related to the highs and lows.
There was nothing to sell. That’s why it worked.
Leadership, Abundance, and Playing the Long Game
Toward the end of the journey, Steven touched on something bigger than tactics.
An abundance mindset.
There’s room to grow. Room to help others. Room to build something meaningful without guarding every win. That belief shaped how he hired, how he marketed, and how he showed up as a leader.
“No one’s going to believe in you more than you believe in yourself.”
You can catch the full conversation on the Dental Practice Launch Podcast: How This Dental Startup Scaled Fast Enough to Hire an Associate | Ep. 80
Final Thoughts
Scaling a dental startup fast enough to hire an associate isn’t about one tactic or channel. It’s about alignment.
Clear systems. Intentional culture. Patient-centered marketing. And leadership that invests early, even when it feels uncomfortable.
Growth follows when those pieces work together. Everything else is execution.
For teams working closely with startup practices every day, this kind of growth pattern shows up again and again at Crimson Media.