I’ve spent the past three months calling my friends and colleagues on the phone and saying, “Can I pay for a trip to the dentist?” That’s when most of them stutter, mention something about dentists being sadists and every so often I hear faint weeping before they hang up on me.
Okay, I exaggerated. Sort of.
The reality is that people have some pretty major fears of the dentist. My fears involve drills, which is weird because I’ve had exactly one cavity and I won the filling in a poker game. Actually scratch that, it’s a totally rational fear because that man was no better at dentistry than he was at poker. It hurt and it would have been expensive had I not been in possession of a fist full of his dollars.
Brighter.com fills a void. People don’t go to the dentist for a variety of reasons: cost, convenience and fear are a few of them. Basically Brighter is a free alternative to dental insurance. They negotiate rates for a host of common treatments and you book online at your convenience and know exactly what you’ll pay when you walk in the door.
There are dentists who have partnered with Brighter.com who are very actively seeking new clients and running new client specials.
Or how about teeth whitening?
I haven’t used Brighter.com yet because we started this campaign about 20 seconds after our whole family had gone in for teeth cleanings. I swear we just swarm the office and take over every chair in the place. My friends and colleagues have had great experiences. Yolanda took her daughter for her first dental check up and wrote about it, Bitch in Suburbia realized her son hadn’t had a cleaning in two years… she blames it on the government shut down and gerrymandering (I completely and 100% cosign on her story) and Alaia loved the convenience of booking through Brighter.com.
Currently Brighter.com is only in LA but they’ve just secured a third round of funding and I’d be willing to bet that Brighter.com will be expanding into new markets.
It’s been fun connecting bloggers in Los Angeles with startups like Brighter. It’s kept me busy and probably cut into my own writing time but it’s also very rewarding. I enjoy being productive, I love connecting people and um hello… greatest job ever… I get to read blogs all day and give writers great opportunities.
Moving forward I’ll have more opportunities for bloggers and if you’d like to hear about them please join this email list. If you’re in Los Angeles please join this one as well.