LDC Top 50 2026
Kunal Thakker
Founder and CEO
Tooth Club
Sometimes, it takes an outsider to disrupt a sector and former Goldman Sachs director Kunal Thakker “knew nothing” about dentists before entering the industry. After launching a dental business with his best friend’s wife, which they sold in 2019, he set up Tooth Club in 2020.
Drawing on his own dental anxiety, he reinvented the experience with flowers in waiting rooms and Netflix available during treatment. With 19 practices in the south, Kunal plans to expand into the north of England, taking turnover to £30 million next year. “I have built a cookie cutter model and have huge ambitions,” he says. “We’ll get to 50 UK sites within four years.”
I have built a cookie cutter model and have huge ambitions. We’ll get to 50 UK sites within four years.”
Q&A
Why dentistry?
My best friend’s wife is a dentist. She had no business experience so we teamed up to start a business alongside my banking job. The day we got the keys to our first practice, she found out she was pregnant with twins. I learned fast and ran that company single-handed until 2019, when we sold it. I went into banking because I come from a typical Asian family but I wasn’t satisfied. Everyone thought I was mad when I quit my job at Goldman Sachs to start Tooth Club in 2020.
What’s so special about your model?
We open on busy high streets serving people aged 25-35. We don’t buy and build; we start every practice from scratch, transforming an empty unit into a dental practice in 12 weeks. They cost around £350,000 a time but have new tech, new equipment and staff trained by us from day one – it’s impossible to change people who are stuck in their ways. Patients travel from Paris and Abu Dhabi to visit us. We have World Cup footballers as patients.
Where does your entrepreneurial spirit come from?
My parents had shops when I was growing up, and my dad was very entrepreneurial. I remember when he introduced a National Lottery machine. ‘Why, when you don’t make money on it?” I asked. He introduced me to the concept of a ‘loss leader’. People who came in for a lottery ticket would often buy a bar of chocolate or rent a DVD.
