Dr. Gerald Tan: AI Dentistry, Business Betrayal & Rebuilding Trust – E588
"I tried calling my partners and their phones were not even switched on. I panicked. It was eventually discovered that my ex-partners had forged financial documents. Mm-hmm. Not only did they forge the financial documents, but they also forged Ernst & Young chief auditor's signature on those financial documents. With those forged financial documents, they went to six different banks to borrow money from each bank, plus all the money that was injected by all these investors from family offices and whatnot. They emptied the bank account and fled to China, abandoning their wives, partners, children, and families, and leaving us all high and dry—leaving the businesses, investors, and banks high and dry." - Dr. Gerald Tan, founder of Elite Dental Group
"For example, if you got involved in a very bad road traffic accident and you fractured or smashed your teeth, and if you had an old picture of yourself prior to the accident, smiling, I could take that and feed it into the AI, and the AI would redesign exactly the same kind of teeth to reconstruct all of your broken teeth—to make you look exactly like what you looked like before the accident. Which is simply amazing, isn't it? I didn't know that was possible until you just told me. Yeah. So it's all about AI design—computer-aided design driven by AI. Mm-hmm. And then, of course, the dentist or the dental technician has the right to manually override and tweak whatever the AI suggests." - Dr. Gerald Tan, founder of Elite Dental Group
"That's how AI is impacting design. A large part of what I do is designing. A lot of my patients have severely worn down, broken, or missing teeth and just have to reconstruct. So the reconstruction process always starts with design first, before you actually execute. So that's how AI is impacting my field. What's even more exciting—and I'm just so excited to tell you about this—is that I'm currently involved in an AI project that has the attention of the government, of the Agency for Integrated Care. It's caught the attention of the National Dental Center of Singapore. It's caught the attention of the Faculty of Dentistry, NUS. Caught the attention of Health Minister Ong." - Dr. Gerald Tan, founder of Elite Dental Group
Dr. Gerald Tan, founder of Elite Dental Group and the first Singaporean dentist to graduate from Harvard Business School, joins Jeremy Au to share how dentistry blends science, art, and entrepreneurship. They explore his journey from being one of 30 students in NUS Dentistry to leading an AI-driven public health initiative and surviving a devastating fraud by trusted business partners. Gerald unpacks how AI is reshaping oral health diagnostics, how public and private dental sectors have evolved in Singapore, and why legal protections alone aren’t enough in business. His story is a powerful look into what it means to lead with resilience and foresight in healthcare.
01:25 He chose dentistry after a biology teacher’s influence and secured one of 30 spots at NUS Dentistry: entry was highly competitive with over 900 applicants
10:19 Singapore’s public dental sector has improved significantly: however, private clinics remain more agile in adopting cutting-edge technologies
11:53 Private dental practices leverage AI for 3D imaging, smile reconstruction, and robotics: public clinics face slower tech adoption due to red tape
15:10 Gerald leads a national AI project to screen elderly oral health via smartphone photos: the tool supports Singapore’s Healthier SG initiative and preventive care agenda
20:04 He bought a retiring dentist’s practice to found Elite Dental Group: the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted patient volumes and highlighted business model vulnerabilities
25:41 A joint venture with ex-bankers collapsed after they forged financial documents and fled to China: Gerald relied on contract clauses to unwind the deal but says trust is more important than paperwork
(01:22) Jeremy Au: Hello, Gerald! I'm really excited to have you on the show. I've been seeing you and hang out with you past few years, and I was like, wait a moment.
(01:28) There's a really interesting narrative and story that you've had. So, glad to have you here.
(01:32) Dr. Gerald Tan: Thanks for having me
(01:33) Jeremy Au: could you introduce yourself?
(01:35) Dr. Gerald Tan: My name is, Gerald Tan. I've been a dental surgeon for the past 22 years. I graduated with a degree in dentistry from the Faculty of Dentistry in NUS. I obtained postgrads in dentistry in England and in Australia back in Singapore again. But what's interesting is I also obtained an executive business education from (02:00) HBS.
(02:00) Jeremy Au: And I think at the Harvard, business school is where we encountered each other.
(02:03) Dr. Gerald Tan: Yes.
(02:04) Jeremy Au: And I was like, okay, you're a dentist then. That is not common, having a HBS dentist. Are you the first or?
(02:11) Dr. Gerald Tan: Yeah. So, when I was in school in Boston, I went up to the admin office and spoke to the head of admin. I was curious and asked her whether according to their records, they had any Singaporean dentists graduate from either the HBS, MBA program, or any of the executive programs. To my pleasant surprise, I'm the first Singaporean dentist to have done , according to them.
(02:33) Jeremy Au: Yeah, according to them you could even be the first Southeast Asian dentist. You should go back and ask.
(02:36) Dr. Gerald Tan: Many medical doctors who have gone through either MBA program or Exec programs, but dentist, not so calling. Yeah, you could be the first Southeast Asian dentist. So that could be my claim to fame. We can update that further as well.
(02:47) Jeremy Au: So, I brought you in because there are three parts. One is , what it takes to become a dentist? Two is, your learnings about dentistry and technology and how it's changing.
(02:56) Thirdly, you've been entrepreneurial and a business (03:00) operator within the field dentistry. And I, I think entrepreneurial is so fascinating to me as somebody whose grades would never good enough to be a dentist, especially from junior college to get into there. So I'm curious, let's go back to the beginning. Did you know you're gonna become a dentist in secondary school or junior college?
(03:18) Dr. Gerald Tan: I was in Anglo- Chinese School for 12 years. So I'm an ACS boy. I had really good teachers back in secondary school. My favorite teacher at that time was a biology teacher.
(03:30) So, she influenced me to consider studying medicine or dentistry. In the end, I applied to NUS for both medicine and dentistry. But for whatever reason, which I still don't know today, I was only offered dentistry. My grades were good enough. You know, now that I'm much older and I've got friends in MOH and all that, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say this, but what the heck? I think the Ministry of Education has some kind of a quota. It's a (04:00) problem when all the top students go to medicine or law, Singapore needs top students, different fields. So I think there's a quota for students from medicine, for dentistry, for law, for architecture, and then they randomly assign top students to these different faculties.
(04:16) I was influenced and got into NUS dentistry. I grew to love it because I felt that dentistry was uniquely different from medicine in the sense that dentistry is a merger of art, science, and craftsmanship. I'm constantly using my hands to craft something in the mouth. Kind of like an engineer or architect in the mouth.
(04:37) Jeremy Au: That's so fascinating. So, I wanna unpack that because I always remember that, and that was in junior college, just the A level results came up.
(04:44) Dr. Gerald Tan: Mm-hmm.
(04:45) Jeremy Au: One of my classmates, I won't mention who.
(04:47) Dr. Gerald Tan: Which school you in?
(04:48) Jeremy Au: I went to Raffles Junior College. My parents were like, if your grades are good, you should go. So I went. My grades were not very good, horrible. I think even if my grades have been good, I would've also gone into healthcare actually. (05:00) But I always remember that I think that was like, you know, there's this minor, she cried because her grades were like, a two and something.
(05:06) And so, she felt like that wouldn't let her crack the doctor path, which is seen as higher. That's what I remember. And then she's now a dentist. I don't wanna say who. Did you feel that way or did you feel disappointed that you were going to dentistry and not a doctor?
(05:19) Dr. Gerald Tan: I felt that It was a privilege for me to be offered that place. It was keenly contested. During my time there's only 30 spots. There's only one dental faculty in our entire country, that dental faculty class size was only 30. I was told there were about 900 applicants vying for 30 spots.
(05:41) I went for internships at both medical and dental practices during my JC days. Having had that exposure, I was blessed to have that clarity of mind that either one would be okay. I didn't really see that being a dentist was necessarily (06:00) any less
(06:00) being a medical doctor. But there's an interesting background story to explain why some people might feel that way. Dentistry, maybe a hundred years ago was not really considered important part of your overall wellbeing. It's always your whole systemic health first, and then your dental health second. I think maybe even some people of the older generation today also feel that way. And that's why some people feel that dentistry is a discretionary spend. My grades are changing. Things are changing.
(06:29) Jeremy Au: Well, my grades were nowhere good enough for either one of them. So, tell me about the experience. You're a class of 30 people and you are experiencing a mixture of that medical, the science, the art, the craftsmanship, and learning that. What was that like while you were practicing to be a dentist?
(06:43) Dr. Gerald Tan: So, in dental school, year ones, fresh out of JC, we would share the same classes as the medical year ones. The students from the faculty of medicine and the students from the faculty of dentistry. We shared the same classes in the first year. All (07:00) the basic science classes, all the biochemistry, physiology, so on and so forth. And then second year onwards then we branched out. Yeah. And I always found it fascinating that dentistry is the only body part or organ that broke away from medicine to start its own faculty. I mean, think about it. Our human body has so many different organs. There's the brain, the lungs, the heart, your mouth and teeth, eyes, reproductive system, skeleton, and your skin. So, your teeth and jaw and mouth is the only body part that is so complicated that it broke away from the medical faculty to study.
(07:41) It's a very own faculty. Right. And it's a four- year course, five- year course. Yeah. So, I found that quite fascinating as I moved from year one into year two into all the dental sciences. But at the end of the day, whether you are a dental surgeon or a medical doctor, I feel that we're all part of the bigger (08:00) healthcare system. And we are equally privileged, helping people, and serving the communities.
(08:06) Jeremy Au: So, I mean, there's like 30 people. Is that group very tight? So you know each other inside out.
(08:11) Dr. Gerald Tan: Yeah. It's like a JC class. Yeah. So small. But now the intake has increased. Okay, well that's still quite small. 22 years ago, it was 30, now it's 80. Every single year, 80 students pass out to become dentists. In Singapore, only one dental faculty from NUS. There's no other dental faculties. Yeah. But there are three medical faculty. I think there's one NUS medical fact and then there's Duke- NUS Medical faculty. And then there's I think SMU or something like that. Yeah. Or NTU, So, I think there are three medical schools but there's only one dental school.
(08:42) Jeremy Au: Wow ! And I think what's interesting is that, you know, as people go through that experience, one thing I noticed is when I look at lawyers versus medical, a lot of them end up not liking law.
(08:51) And I feel like a lot of them drop out. I know a few set up bakeries, restaurants as well. I know quite a few, but I feel like the healthcare side, they don't really do that. At least to me, they don't seem.
(08:59) Dr. Gerald Tan: That is an (09:00) interesting observation.
(09:00) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(09:01) Dr. Gerald Tan: Yeah.
(09:01) Jeremy Au: What do you feel about that?
(09:02) Dr. Gerald Tan: The thing about dentistry is that you go to work at eight or 9:00 AM, see patients the entire day, and then end at 6:30, you're exhausted, but you can't take work home unless you set up a dental chair in your bedroom and advertise for patients to go to your house. You can't take work home. But as a lawyer, when you finish in the office, you could actually continue with whatever you need to do on the computer, reading, doing research, and that's why a lot of lawyers can get burnt out.
(09:32) Jeremy Au: I think it's understandable. They work like crazy as well, just like doctors. But I think there's a fair point, being around the clock and work your weekends crazy.
(09:39) Dr. Gerald Tan: But having said that, there are some dental practices that I know of especially in the HDB areas that work three shifts a day, one morning shift, one afternoon shift, and then one night shift. Some dental practices can even open up to 11:00 PM at night. But I don't do that, you know?
(09:56) Jeremy Au: So, I think starting talk a little bit about what was it like to be a dentist, (10:00) right? And, you graduated with your class of 30 and then you were a junior dentist. Could you walk me through what was it like to be a junior dentist?
(10:06) Dr. Gerald Tan: So, after graduating from NUS dentistry, we had to serve compulsory government bond for four years. Right. So, we didn't really have to send our CVs anywhere. It was understood that upon graduation we would work for the government. We would be civil servants for four years serving in healthcare. I was seconded to the armed forces where I worked as a young dentist and began to chalk up some experience. Army boys need to have their wisdom teeth removed. And also need to have a medical and dental clearance
(10:40) before going for a course. If you get selected to go for OCS or whatever, you need to have medical, dental clearance. I served at that rotation for about two years and then I was taken out of that role. And seconded to the National Dental Center in SGH, and then the health promotion board, and that's where I ended my (11:00) duty. I quickly made the decision to move into private practice after that.
(11:03) Jeremy Au: Interesting. I always remember national service. Some people are like, our strategy is to remove wisdom teeth one at a time to maximize the medical. I was like, this is the most crazy thing I've heard, to do it one at a time. I think some people did do it two at a time, one side and one side. You actually saw a lot of that. How would you characterize that difference for folks?
(11:21) Dr. Gerald Tan: I feel that private practice 20 years ago compared to public practice 20 years ago looks very different now the public hospitals and the public dental clinics when compared to private. clinics Are getting better and better in terms of their service quality, their technology, you know, their overall customer experience. It used to be that, if you go to the public hospitals or the public dentists, it's because you couldn't afford to go to the private ones. You had no choice because you had to go to the public ones for subsidized treatment.
(11:59) And then you (12:00) would have to bear with long waiting times, substandard service quality, and maybe not the most cutting edge tech.
(12:08) But nowadays, dental hospitals, dental clinics, and basically the public sector, rising up. You can see the hospitals are newly renovated. They've got fancy machines and toys, especially the teaching hospitals. It's comparable to the private sector.
(12:25) The only downside is that the public sector still has a bit of a weight. You still need to get a cue number and if you want subsidized rates, you need to get a referral letter from a poly clinic, you know, and then you can't really choose which dentist you want.
(12:41) The public sector has its own quirks that some people might not like but on a whole, I think the public sector is coming up and, competing very well with the private sector.
(12:50) Jeremy Au: You mentioned that technology is one of those differentiators between public and private.
(12:55) How have you seen the evolution of technology, primarily in the private (13:00) side?
(13:00) Dr. Gerald Tan: I think, the key advantage that the private side has over the public is that we can make really quick decisions about acquisitions of technology. You can imagine in a big public hospital, if you wanna buy a piece of tech.
(13:12) It goes through many layers of red tape. You've gotta write a white paper for management approval and prove that this latest piece of tech would have a certain ROI, you know, XY dollars would come back. But in private, if we won a piece of tech, we just get it.
(13:28) So, that's the big advantage that the private sector has. We get access to all these fancy toys and nowadays, it's all about AI and even robotics and latest gadgets that help to execute treatment with less pain, with higher efficiency, with less downtime, with less inconvenience. It's been fantastic.
(13:51) Jeremy Au: Yeah. And I think as a patient or user of dental services, I've definitely seen that change, right? Just last year, I saw a 3D scan in my (14:00) mouth which I've never seen before, which is kind of freaky because, you know, when you rotate on the screen, that's your teeth, you know?
(14:05) Mm-hmm. You know, it's just like an embodied set of teeth, rotating around. Sure. But definitely seeing that technology piece, what would you say are the waves of technology that have been the most important or critical in changing how the industry has been?
(14:17) Dr. Gerald Tan: I'm fortunate to practice in the heart of Orchard Road. The clients I attract are fairly discerning and don't mind investing in their oral health and in seeing a dentist that's progressive and technology driven. Therefore, I can afford to tinker with the latest AI solutions because some of them don't come cheap.
(14:36) Coming back to your question, I think, AI is impacting how dentists practice in ways I couldn't have imagined. We can use AI now to design teeth. For example, if you got involved in a very bad road traffic accident and you fractured or smashed your teeth.
(14:57) And if you had an old (15:00) picture of yourself prior to the accident, smiling, I could take that and feed it into the AI and the AI would redesign exactly the same kind of teeth to reconstruct all of your broken teeth, to make you look exactly like what you looked like before the accident which is simply amazing, isn't it?
(15:18) Jeremy Au: I didn't know that was possible until you just told me.
(15:20) Dr. Gerald Tan: Yeah. So, it's all about AI and design, computer aided design driven by AI, and then of course the dentist or the dental technician has the right to manually override and tweak whatever the AI suggests.
(15:35) The AI is being trained with thousands and millions of pictures of teeth so that they can suggest a design of teeth that would most likely be suitable for your mouth and face. That's how AI is impacting design.
(15:52) A large part of what I do is designing. A lot of my patients have severely worn down, broken , or missing teeth and just have to reconstruct. (16:00) So, the reconstruction process always starts with design first before you actually execute. So, that's how AI is impacting my field.
(16:07) What's even more exciting, and I'm just so excited to tell you about this is that I'm currently involved in an AI project that has the attention of the government, the of, the agency for integrated care, it's caught the attention of the National Dental Center of Singapore.
(16:23) It's caught the attention of the faculty of Dentistry NUS . Caught the attention of Health Minister Ong, it's basically the AI that we could potentially deploy on a public health project starting with a pilot targeting the elderly.
(16:38) The elderly living in nursing homes in active aging centers as well as in a new HDB project called the Assisted Living Apartments. Have you heard of those? Yeah. It is a HDB project where they build blocks of flats. And these flats are called Assisted Living Apartments where the elderly go to live out the rest of their days.
(16:58) So, for these (17:00) group of elderly, we all know Singapore's headed to a super age society by 2030. We have a low fertility, low birth rate problem. By 2030, there's going to be 1.2 million people in Singapore that's age 65 and above.
(17:18) So for these group of people, the government has launched initiatives like you may have heard healthier and they've got in-person functional health screening. Anyone above 65 that visits the Active Aging Center will get their eyesight, hearing, and oral health checked.
(17:37) So, we're trying to deploy an AI driven oral health screening tool. At old age establishments, we can train staff or nurses to use the hand phone to take pictures of teeth and gums. Those pictures are then submitted to an online AI platform.
(17:54) The AI platform analyzes the pictures and gives an oral health wellness (18:00) score.
(18:00) The AI suggests certain observations that might trigger you to visit a dentist. For example, swollen gums, a black spot on your tooth that could be initial decay. Missing teeth that could result in other teeth moving. Teeth that are chipped, fractured or broken. The AI picks up all of these things and gives you a score.
(18:21) And if you are considered medium or high risk, it then triggers you to see a dentist for early treatment, early diagnosis, and then that could in turn, lead to prevention of a more serious oral health condition which could be more costly and more painful to deal with down the road.
(18:42) I think MOH is trying to push this campaign of prevention. The mantra is prevention of chronic disease, hypertension, diabetes, anything chronic
(18:53) that saves on the healthcare expenditure. Later on, it relieves the load on the (19:00) public healthcare sector If more people prevent disease from setting in versus you live your life with no mindset of prevention. And then you suddenly get hit with a very bad disease, you have no choice but to undergo expensive treatment and then you clock up the public health system.
(19:18) it's the same for oral health diseases. The ministry is trying to promote prevention of chronic healthcare diseases, but that starts with early screening leading to early detection and early intervention at the dental office. But now, the screening can be done with the power of just your hand phone
(19:37) that's driven by AI. And you don't have to see a dentist to get your T- screen anymore.
(19:42) Jeremy Au: Yeah. I think it's really cool. The reality is that AI is making so many jobs efficient. I don't think, for the lawyers, AI is obviously scary it replaced a lot of the jobs.
(19:53) Dr. Gerald Tan: So many of my lawyer friends are very worried.
(19:55) Jeremy Au: Of course. Cause again, just spit out all the documents and be so precise, but I don't think it'll ever replace the dish (20:00) tree. AI is needed to help make it more efficient, but it's not going to change the fundamental requirement that somebody has to look at your teeth in person.
(20:07) Dr. Gerald Tan: Someone has to look at your teeth in person. Someone has to pick up a handpiece and start drilling your teeth. But AI is just going to be an enabler. Yeah. It will enable, you know, patients who don't have easy access to the dentist to have a quick and easy oral health screen.
(20:23) Jeremy Au: Right.
(20:23) Dr. Gerald Tan: To understand or have an idea of what their current state of oral health is. It's just kind of like a blood test. But nowadays, you have no choice. You have to go to a clinic, get your blood drawn. And then you have a health report, right? Imagine in the future, you don't have to have your blood drawn. You have an AI tool that shines light into your eye blood vessels and then, you know, I don't know.
(20:44) Jeremy Au: Just like thought check already.
(20:46) Dr. Gerald Tan: You don't have to see a dentist. You can, from the comfort of your own home, take a couple of pictures of your teeth within certain parameters.
(20:52) It can't be blur photos then you submit it to AI and the AI will analyze it, verified by remote dentists, you get an oral health (21:00) report. And if something is serious, it triggers you to go and see a nearby dentist.
(21:03) Jeremy Au: I think what's interesting is that, you know, so much about this, and this goes to show how entrepreneurial you are, right?
(21:09) What's been interesting is that you also built out the Elite Dental Group as well. And you've been an entrepreneur within the dental space as well. Could you share a little bit more about that entrepreneurial journey?
(21:18) Dr. Gerald Tan: So, as I mentioned earlier, I've been a dentist for 22 years, but an entrepreneur only for the past 10. Prior to that I was working as an associate dentist in a really nice private practice in New York City.
(21:32) I really enjoyed my time there. I learned from whom I thought were the best dentists in private practice at that time. But an opportunity arose for me to acquire a dental practice from a very senior dentist who was thinking of retiring. So, I took a deep breath and borrowed some money from my parents and I decided, it's now or never. And I decided to (22:00) acquire this practice from this senior dentist who was retiring. I acquired her business, her database, her machines, tools and equipment, and I retained her staff. My life hasn't been the same since.
(22:13) Jeremy Au: How has your life changed? Because, you know, before that you were an employee, learning, and now you're the boss. I've had good days and bad days, you know? Yeah. What are the good days? What are the bad days from your perspective now that you are running your own business?
(22:25) Dr. Gerald Tan: The good days, thankfully, are more than the bad days. The good days typically look like my dental chairs filled with happy patients.
(22:34) And my associate dentist feeling fulfilled and happy with the kind of dentistry and the service that they're providing. Good day could look like my team members, my team of nurses, front office executives, humming along in harmony with little misunderstanding and quarrel.
(22:52) And that's a good day. Bad days started to become more frequent when Covid hit. A bad day turned into a bad week, (23:00) turned into a bad month, turned into a bad year, Jeremy. Pandemic's a tough time. I think that I don't speak just for myself, but for many other businesses as well.
(23:09) Jeremy Au: How specifically did the pandemic be tough for the dentistry practice?
(23:14) Dr. Gerald Tan: Well, I think dentistry is still very much considered a primary healthcare need. But when Covid hit, the thing that frustrated all of us was although we were allowed to remain open, we were only allowed to see patients who were in need of emergency dental treatment. Like if you were suffering from acute tooth ache, then we were allowed to see you.
(23:38) So, there were some patients who tried to game the system. They would call in and say that they've got a ravaging toothache, they can't eat, they can't sleep. But then, when they show up in the clinic, all they need is a clean because they just really wanted to get their treatment done. They had to lie and say they were having a toothache when they weren't actually
(23:58) just in order to (24:00) get into the dental office. Another thing that hit me hard was I lost all of my overseas patients in the Orchard Road Belt. Mount Elizabeth Orchard, where I am in Somerset, in Yan City. All of us in Orchard Road used to enjoy Seeing a lot of dental tourists.
(24:17) Mm-hmm.
(24:18) We used to work with a lot of medical and dental concierge companies who would arrange for Patients from nearby countries like Indonesia to come to Singapore. Do you spend a week here?
(24:32) On Monday, you get your hair done. On Tuesday, you get your full body checkup, blood tests, and all that done. Wednesday, you get your teeth done. Thursday, you see the cardiologist you need to. Friday, you go to Casino. And Saturday, shopping dinners on every night, and then you fly back. It's like a package. And all of that kind of dried up. Yeah. And now that we are four years out of the pandemic, those numbers haven't come back in a big way.
(24:58) Jeremy Au: So, they've stayed in their home (25:00) countries and their own dental practices and healthcare.
(25:03) Dr. Gerald Tan: Doctors and dentists in their own countries were forced to innovate or rise up to the occasion. They were wary of losing patients to Singapore, the go-to medical hub of Southeast Asia, right?
(25:16) I mean, if you are famous doctor, dentist in Indonesia, you would be, you know, feeling it right, I'm losing my patients to Singapore. But then, now, we are losing patients to JB, and soon we can take a train there just the Hong Kong sunshine thing, right?
(25:29) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(25:29) Dr. Gerald Tan: Yeah.
(25:30) Jeremy Au: So, I think what's interesting is that, this is one challenge you had were there other challenges that you had, you know, in your business, you know, as entrepreneurial person.
(25:39) Dr. Gerald Tan: Generally as a healthcare practitioner, and practice owner, we are subjected to very strict publicity and advertising rules and regulations as metered out by MOH.
(25:53) So, that has been a ongoing challenge for many years now. But thankfully (26:00) MOH has of late been progressive in their thinking and relaxed some of these rules and regulations. It's still a very challenging landscape compared to our neighbors, you know, Malaysia, the rising economies, like Vietnam, Philippines, if you're a dentist there, you could really aggressively promote, think of creative marketing campaigns to improve your business. But here, it's still very much heavily restricted.
(26:27) Jeremy Au: I understand that you went through a difficult business challenge through a joint venture. Yes. And also in the public news as well. Could you share a bit more about that experience?
(26:37) Dr. Gerald Tan: So, wow! I mean, I could go on and on, Jeremy. This could be like a therapy session. I still have a bit of PTSD on it, but okay.
(26:45) I'll just share for the benefit of the views. In 2019, I was approached by two dear friends of mine who were ex JPM bankers who had left the bank to purchase (27:00) a chain of medical aesthetic clinics called PPP at that time. Have you heard of the PPP chain of laser aesthetic clinics?
(27:07) Jeremy Au: It wasn't in the market.
(27:08) Dr. Gerald Tan: They had about, 12 or 15 clinics around Singapore. The business model for those clinics was high volume, low fee laser skin aesthetic treatment. They were doing quite well.
(27:21) These two ex-partners of mine were not medical doctors or dentists, just business people. They saw an opportunity in healthcare and decided to purchase this group of clinics. To their credit, they improved the business by leaps and bounds, and that attracted, you know, many other investors who were willing to pump in more money to invest in growing this group.
(27:43) Mm-hmm.
(27:44) They received investment money from family offices, very wealthy private individuals, institutional money. And banks they were acquiring businesses. They were, you know, at that point, they were acquiring
(27:59) a health (28:00) screening, health screening business. And then there were, there was talks about acquiring a haircare business. Mm. There was talks to acquire a medical lab.
(28:09) Mm-hmm.
(28:10) There were GP practices, this is a classic healthcare play where the game is, they grow organically and then they acquire and grow bigger and bigger.
(28:20) And then there's a liquidity event, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Usually it's a trade sale or IPO which is what they were planning. You would probably know all this better than me. But they called me one day and said, 'Hey, Gerald, we are missing something very important. We're missing dental.'
(28:33) Mm.
(28:34) And you know, we sat down and had a couple of dinners and they managed to convince me that if I were to start a joint venture with them and grow the dental subsidiary of this healthcare conglomerate they were trying to build, it would be value creating , value adding, and very meaningful.
(28:54) And there would be something at the end of the rainbow for all of us. This is not new. I think Fullerton has been trying to do (29:00) this and Raffles and whatnot. You've heard this, In the marketplace time and time again.
(29:04) So I said, okay. I agreed to be a joint venture partner and I had sight of the bank account and we were really healthy.
(29:13) Mm.
(29:13) I had the budget to acquire top line revenue from practices in Singapore and around the region. So, I went around signing NDAs,
(29:23) doing operational due diligence, trying to sell the story, basically. This went on for about a year and my discussions with acquisition targets were in the late stage towards a draft MOU or draft sales and purchase agreement. I read a newspaper report that my partners were being charged for forgery. A police report has been made and they were charged for forgery and embezzlement. Soon after my phone started ringing and my other partners (30:00) started calling me asking what's going on, I tried calling my partners and their phones were not even switched on.
(30:06) I panicked. It was eventually discovered that my ex-partners had forged financial documents not only did they forge the financial documents, but they also forged Ernst and Young Chief auditors signature on those financial documents. With those forged financial documents, they went to six different banks to borrow money from each bank. Plus all the money that was injected by all these investors from family offices and whatnot. They emptied the bank account and fled to China, abandoning their wives, partners, children and families, and leaving us all high and dry. Leaving the businesses investors and banks high and dry. You couldn't make this kind of thing up.
(30:50) Jeremy Au: Oh my gosh! That sounds terrible.
(30:52) Dr. Gerald Tan: I panicked and I called my lawyers. The same lawyers that helped me craft my own joint venture. Yeah. (31:00) You know, agreement term, sheet and agreement with them to try to extricate me out of this joint venture. I managed to exercise my right to unwind from this joint venture agreement. Because my lawyers had very cleverly, included, unwinding clause. Yeah.
(31:18) Jeremy Au: A termination.
(31:19) Dr. Gerald Tan: Yeah. Like a termination or unwinding clause with potential triggers for this unwinding. And one of the triggers was either a police investigation or some allegation of dishonesty of fraud. Right. And I have the right to unwind.
(31:37) Jeremy Au: Mm.
(31:38) Dr. Gerald Tan: And I managed to do that.
(31:40) Jeremy Au: Oh my gosh! That sounds crazy.
(31:42) Dr. Gerald Tan: Yeah.
(31:42) Jeremy Au: What was it like when you saw the, was it a newspaper when you read it? Or was it on the phone?
(31:47) Dr. Gerald Tan: I just felt gutted. These two partners of mine, we were childhood friends. They were very successful bankers. One of them is sadly even Harvard alum.
(31:57) Jeremy Au: That's terrible.
(31:58) Dr. Gerald Tan: I mean, I couldn't name names but (32:00) this is all public knowledge. Their names were all published in the straight times, so I will leave it to you to find out.
(32:05) Jeremy Au: Still fugitives?
(32:06) Dr. Gerald Tan: So, one of them has been charged.
(32:10) He pleaded guilty, so he's now serving a 15 year prison sentence in Singapore. They arrested him in China. He was flown back and he's now serving his sentence. The other partner, swears he had nothing to do with it.
(32:22) He's now a declared bankrupt. From what I have heard , there's a prosecution team set up to build a case to set up charges against him.
(32:31) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(32:31) Dr. Gerald Tan: Yeah,.
(32:32) Jeremy Au: I mean, if they both ran to China together, how do you not know? What you're is doing so kind of crazy.
(32:37) Dr. Gerald Tan: One of them ran to China. The other one, didn't.
(32:40) Jeremy Au: one ran to China.
(32:41) Dr. Gerald Tan: Okay.
(32:41) Jeremy Au: So I guess that's, yeah.
(32:43) Dr. Gerald Tan: The second one's passport was impounded before he could.
(32:46) Jeremy Au: Okay, gotcha.
(32:47) Is there any advice you would give to folks to avoid a situation?
(32:52) Dr. Gerald Tan: That's an interesting question. Because of this episode, I decided to enroll in HBS to present (33:00) this case study as a thesis. Something I could discuss with my business professors and I've learned so much from them.
(33:06) Mm.
(33:07) The advice that I would give is that, when you enter into a joint venture partnership, no amount of cleverness in a term sheet, no amount of detail in an agreement can protect you completely from a partner who is intending to cheat or be dishonest. If you encounter a partner that's dishonest, it's very hard to protect yourself completely from that. I've heard of family businesses where brothers and relatives are less than
(33:42) honest with one another. Friends or associates that you don't really know well. And you think that you are completely protected by a very clever, detailed shareholders agreement written by Singapore's top lawyer. All that is helpful, don't get me wrong. But if (34:00) someone really wants to be dishonest towards you, there's very little that you can do.
(34:05) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(34:06) Dr. Gerald Tan: And then if someone actually does behave in this way towards you and then you fall back to your shareholders' agreement or whatever term sheet you signed, and then that's when you start fighting and arguing and going to court trying to prove your point and having people listen to your story. And then, that drains your life energy, right?
(34:24) Jeremy Au: That'll be a bad day.
(34:25) Dr. Gerald Tan: Yeah. It could be months, if not years before you get your money back or get your shares back, or extricate yourself from the joint venture . And then, even though in principle you think you might be morally right, but at the end of the ordeal, you'll be just so exhausted and you might be even aura from all of those legal fees that you had to fork out even if you had the best shareholders agreement.
(34:49) Jeremy Au: That's good advice.
(34:50) Dr. Gerald Tan: That's something that is business entrepreneurship. It's not for everyone.
(34:53) Jeremy Au: And on that note, my last question for you is, could you share a personal story about a time (35:00) you've been brave?
(35:00) Dr. Gerald Tan: Wow! Coming back to what I said earlier, having that bravery to take myself out of my comfort zone from being an associate dentist to becoming a practice owner, entrepreneur, required a lot of bravery on my part.
(35:19) I was stepping out of my sphere of competency. As a dental professional in university, we were taught to be very good at what we do. But we were taught very little about leadership, entrepreneurship, finance, commanding respect from a team marketing, and personal branding, all those things necessary for an entrepreneur to succeed. I had to really get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
(35:51) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(35:52) Dr. Gerald Tan: Yeah. It was very intentional for me to be brave and to surround myself with people who could help along (36:00) this journey to impart some of their wisdom and experience. But still, mistakes still need to be made for you to learn.
(36:08) Jeremy Au: Thank you so much for sharing your journey. I love to summarize the three big takeaways. First of all, thanks for sharing about your early student journey, as a dental student, I think a lot of people don't know what's it like to be a dental student. Secondly, thanks for sharing about technology and dentistry, the public versus the private sectors. I think it was a very wonderful landscape, portrayal about what's going on in the space.
(36:32) And lastly, thanks so much for sharing about your own entrepreneurial adventure as a founder, but also some of the misadventures that you had with bad faith business partners. And I think that's such a great encapsulation of both good things to learn as well as, good advice to follow to avoid bad situations. On that note, thank you so much for sharing!
(36:50) Dr. Gerald Tan: Welcome, Jeremy!