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Health Care Getaway (HCG)

Health Care Getaway (HCG), Geoffery Nate William

Title / Role: Owner
Location: San Jose, California
www.HealthcareGetaways.com
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My successes.

He temporarily stopped the idea of buying the property and concentrated on getting customers. He joined the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce where he knew some customers were ready to go for treatment. And the next thing is, he had three customers ready to travel. Nate traveled with his first customer and came back with a success. He has an additional seven customers ready for travel.

What inspired you to start your business?

Geoffery Nate William was born in Washington, DC at Andrews Air Force Base. Since childhood, he was passionate about aviation.  He learned how to fly as a youth and he flew on and off throughout the years.

Nate attended Foothill College, studied aviation management then transferred to San Jose State University in aeronautical engineering with a 3.78 GPA. He started searching for a ground maintenance position and was hired by Trans World Airlines (TWA) as a flight attendant. He worked there for 15 years. He was promoted to flight service manager, then to ground assistant station manager, in Los Angeles. When American Airlines purchased TWA, he left the job.

He always had an entrepreneurial spirit. From his childhood, he had paper routes, mowed lawns, cleared snow from driveways, and washed windows. After high school, his first business was Christmas Tree Delivery. After TWA Nate decided to start a business. He manufactured rubber soles for work boots. This venture was a disaster on all sides and scales.

“I had many disappointing and hard learning experiences as a do-or-die entrepreneur. Fate ended my career at TWA, lack of business sense ended my rubber sole business, and I decided to go back to school”, said Nate.

Nate spent 4 years at San Jose State University and got a degree in Business Administration. In May 2015, he graduated from the Lucas School of Business.

While in business school he came across a case study where an insurance company sent a patient and his wife to Japan for a specialized treatment. The cost for the flight, hospital stay, and treatment was one-fourth of the cost of just treatment alone in the U.S. This turned on the light bulb, an introduction to Medical Tourism.

Nate started dreaming of his own company, where “HealthcareGetaways.com” was born. It’s a Medical Tourism Company focused on affordable dentistry, an alternative solution to the high cost of the US medical care system.

While working as a manager at the Fish Market to keep the lights on, serving his current client, and always working on lead generation for HCG, Nate decided to visit SCORE for startup guidance.

In August 2014 he met SCORE counselors Bill Klein and John Edwards where he received his initial guidance. Later, John introduced him to Nadera Alam and then he continued with her.

Nate saw a clearer direction for launching this business. He started out wanting to build a general travel website like travel companies and he came across a case study on the Medical Tourism industry. As his college project, he was able to do extensive secondary research and some primary research with surveys on where the public would be willing to travel for medical care. He was convinced that dental treatment in Costa Rica and Mexico would be a good target.

“Nadera supported my idea of traveling to Costa Rica and Mexico for validation of the claims of superior dental work, more advanced technology, and unrivaled customer care”.

Medical Tourism is an $11 billion industry in the U.S. with a confirmed growth rate of 25% every year since 2004. The industry is highly fragmented with a few big successful companies but none that have major market share. This business is as broad as there are treatments. “Given the right resources, I could build a very successful, large, multi-national firm”, said Nate.

 “I have taken my college project, using my own resources, guidance from my SCORE counselors, my professors, and a friend, Captain Augustine, and have turned it into a real lead and revenue-generating business”.

Bill Klein and Nadera helped him with marketing, reviewing the business plan and standard cash flow projection.

Nate traveled a few times to Costa Rica and Mexico.  He personally met with several dental groups, hotels and B&Bs, and a few tour groups. He also met doctors and toured their entire facilities. He was convinced that every type of medical travel treatment could be performed.  This includes dental, plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery weight loss management – the list goes on.

During his travels, he came across a beautiful BnB that was up for sale in Costa Rica. Costa Rica has 2 medical treatment recovery centers specifically for medical treatment travelers. He toured them as well and decided he wanted to buy the BnB and convert it into an upscale 10-unit recovery center. He started looking for investors… He found it difficult to get any loan or any investor and he couldn’t buy the property.

How SCORE helped.

“Nadera has helped me tremendously over the years. The most noted is her never-ending encouragement when something went wrong or the approaches I took, all ended as a huge learning opportunity”.

Nate‘s future dream is to have 5 offices around the world furthering the movement of revolutionizing medical care. He also wants to build collaborative relations with U.S. doctors, insurance companies, law firms, hospitals, lobbyists, medical schools,

“I provide a relevant, practical, viable, and realistic alternative solution. I’ve heard it best stated:  Bringing together patients and medical professionals worldwide, and serving those with the most need vs those with the most resources.”

Nate believes that he has a long way to go and this is not the destination, it’s the journey. And on this journey, he needs SCORE’s help and guidance.

SCORE wishes him all the success.

What's great about my mentor?

“I will be always grateful to SCORE for their help and guidance”

My mentors
Headshot of Nadera Alam
Nadera Alam

Nadera Alam is a seasoned international executive with over 28 years of entrepreneurial experience...

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Headshot of Bill Klein
Bill Klein

Bill"s experience includes both electrical engineering and general management. He holds degrees...

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c/o San Jose Chamber of Commerce P.O. Box 149
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San Jose, CA 95103
(408) 453-6237

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Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.

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