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ENTREPRENEURS
SUMMER 2010 l 22
Scott Blodgett ’10 e xplores
The Business and Science of
F
Sleep
or someone who helped to found a company out of his basement, the story of Scott Blodgett ‘10 BBA and his business, Sleep Insights Management Services, LLC, is that of the quintessential entrepreneur. Now serving as chief operating officer, Blodgett has worked to expand and adapt his company since its inception in 2005. Having started as a technologist at the Strong Epilepsy Center at the University at Rochester Medical Center, Blodgett had extensive experience in the clinical side of seizure monitoring. At a personal and professional level, he faced some frustrations. “With universities being the way they are, unless someone above you . . . moves away, there’s no upward movement,” says Blodgett. “And, while patient care is good, it’s not great. Patients are more numbers than people, and it’s all about getting people through the system.” Through that frustration, Blodgett and his business partner, Dr. Kenneth Plotkin, sensed an opportunity. “We wanted to focus a health-care business that was patient-centered,” he shares. “Like any other small business, we scraped together money and started to piece together a business. Our original business model was to diagnose and treat patients with sleep disorders - neurological and pulmonary.” “We started off working out of our basements at our homes, and after a few weeks, we found temporary office space,” says Blodgett. From there, the pair coordinated the transformation of a “concrete shell” into a modern and “luxurious” sleep center at Sleep Insights Medical Services, PLLC, learning along the way practical elements of starting a business - from construction to negotiating leases - all without formal business training. “The field of sleep medicine was exploding at the time we opened,” explains Blodgett. “Rochester was underserved, with roughly half the beds that were needed. Our four-bed center hit capacity quickly, and we saw our wait times grow.” In the absence of the detailed business plans that some entrepreneurs swear by, Blodgett observes, “We built a house without a foundation. We had a great-looking house, but there wasn’t a lot of structure, I was missing a formal business education.” He continues, “You need a little skill, a little guts, and