Your Name: Coletta Dorado
Business Name: AZZLY, a patient care management solution for medical businesses
Type of Business: Medical
Business Location: Vero Beach, Florida, United States
Website www.azzly.com
Twitter @azzly_platform
Facebook www.facebook.com/azzly platform
Reason for starting
My mother had an adverse hospital incident that did not have to happen. I watched it. A medical device that was pumping liquid out of her stomach was unplugged as she was rotated by the nurse in the afternoon. The device was never plugged in again and by morning all of the successful work in her lower intestine by the surgeon became unraveled and she was in writhing pain. At 91 to have another surgery wthin 24 hours we knew the outcome would be bleak. It was. The U.S. is not a third world country. Why was there not an alert or alarm at the nurse’s station to indicate a device was not plugged in or functioning? We all have choices. Do nothing, sue or do something positive and bring about change. My mother taught me through her life and now her death. That is why I became passionate to bring about a better healthcare delivery system called AZZLY, for patients, for providers and for better outcomes.
How do you define success?
I define success one day at a time; one phone call at a time; one presentation at a time; one successful meeting at a time; one educated student at a time; one trained allied healthcare professional at a time; one sale at a time. If I am able to convince one person that we can make a difference than that is success because I know that it eventually will bring me a referral that will lead to a sale. Success is when I have convinced someone that today’s technology(programmed in AZZLY) can keep them in practice and produce better outcomes. Success is the abiliity to grow a business by adding one person at a time or to grow entrepreneurs in each community. Success is a collaboration of many efforts.
Biggest Success
As a serial entrepreneur I was instrumental in growing a regional brokerage firm from 4 of us to over 600 over 15 years and selling it to a major bank in 2001. It was through hard work, ups and downs, and many challenges to accomplish but it was a great feeling of accomplishment all the way through. To have over 250 employees and to be supporting independent entrepreneurs across the US with efficient workflow processes so they could grow their businesses was collaboration at its best.
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it?
My top challenge is finding a strategic partner that “gets it” and can complement our efforts with experience, knowledge, connections and funding opportunities to launch our sales and marketing efforts. The good news is: we are new technology. The bad news is: we are new technology. The challenge is locating and convincing someone or some company that is larger, better connected, better financed to embrace your vision and passion and run with you to grab market share and create a large footprint. We are addressing it by a ground up approach by educating patients and a healthcare provider’s “trusted advisor”. At a community level we are reaching out to Billing Service Organizations, accountants, bankers, brokers, investment advisors, healthcare attorneys for referrals by showing them the “value add” that we offer to keep their physician clients in private practice caring for patients.
Who is your most important role model?
My mother and father – they gave me the foundation that allowed me to be the person that I am and the drive to be an entrepreneur throughout my life. You have to be proud of who you are and what you do every day. Having the passion and drive to make it from start up to a successful company takes strong values and perseverance that can’t be taught but must be part of your make up. That is why we have to start young and breed entrepreneurship. A current role model Cher Wang, Co-founder of HTC