Systems, Shared Services, and Smart Exits: How Craig Keegan Makes Dental Practices Investable
September 16, 2025
What if most dentists aren’t trained to run, scale, or sell a business – but investors only buy businesses, not jobs?
In this episode of The TechDental Podcast, host Dr Randeep Singh Gill sits down with Craig Keegan, Founder of the Dental Exit Co-operative, to explore how standardised systems, shared services, and disciplined M&A strategies turn practices into truly investable businesses. Learn how Craig built a practitioner-first platform to help owners scale with confidence, why fixing the back end is the key to unlocking compounding value, and how AI amplifies good processes but magnifies broken ones. Whether you’re a single-practice owner or leading a growing group, this conversation will challenge the way you think about scale, exits, and freedom. Discover how early preparation, smart structures, and people-first systems can help you build a business investors want – and exit without regret.
Dentists are skilled clinicians, not business operators. Yet the ability to run, scale, and exit like a business owner is often the difference between a practice that struggles to sell and one that attracts premium valuations.
In this episode of The TechDental Podcast, host Dr Randeep Singh Gill speaks with Craig Keegan, founder of the Dental Exit Co-operative, about how he is helping dentists transform owner-dependent practices into truly investable businesses through standardised systems, shared services, and smart M&A strategies.
What You’ll Learn
In this episode of The TechDental Podcast, host Dr Randeep Singh Gill speaks with Craig Keegan, founder of the Dental Exit Co-operative, about how he is helping dentists transform owner-dependent practices into truly investable businesses through standardised systems, shared services, and smart M&A strategies.
What You’ll Learn
- Why most dental practices fail to sell – and how to make them truly investable
- The 13 business pillars every practice must standardise to unlock value
- How shared services cut costs, boost efficiency, and compound ROI across groups
- Where AI is genuinely transforming dentistry (and where it creates chaos)
- The difference between smart roll-ups and vanity projects – and how to avoid the trap
- Why asset purchases protect founders better than business purchases
- How early exit planning prevents burnout, regret, and lost valuation
- The multi-exit strategy: how to sell once, stay on, and get paid again (and again)
About the Guest
Craig Keegan is the founder of the Dental Exit Co-operative, a practitioner-first platform helping dental owners scale with systems and exit with confidence. With more than two decades of M&A experience across multiple sectors, Craig has executed deals valued at seven, eight, and nine figures, building buy-side ecosystems and delivering millions in synergies. Through the co-op’s shared services model, he is redefining how independent practices grow, consolidate, and prepare for premium exits without burnout or loss of control.
Today, Craig is recognised as a leading voice in dental M&A strategy, combining operational systems, smart deal structures, and people-first retention models to help dentists transform practices into investable businesses and achieve multiple, life-changing exits.
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