Have you ever called to make an appointment with a doctor or stylist and found they’re all booked up? Or do you take appointments from clients only to be left idling when they cancel that morning?
Jeff Peres wants to close what he sees as a market inefficiency.
He’s the co-founder and CEO of Mount Washington-based Everseat, one of the presenting startups at last week’s Baltimore TechBreakfast at the offices of DLA Piper, also in Mount Washington.
Everseat was co-founded by a doctor who experienced appointment fail firsthand: Dr. Brian Kaplan, an ear, nose and throat specialist at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Towson.
Doctors “have cancellations every day, and that’s really expiring inventory,” Peres said in his presentation, likening it to a plane taking off with empty seats.
Everseat’s iOS app works like this: If you need to see somebody in a certain field in your area and see that the provider’s posted an opening, you can send a request to take it. If one isn’t available yet, you can opt to be notified when an appointment does open up. Users can set favorite providers and be notified by text or email whenever they have an open seat in the future. The service is paid for by charging providers $1 per reservation, similar to restaurant reservation service OpenTable, Peres said.
“No one cares about $1, but as our app is in hundreds of people’s phones, it seems to work out pretty well,” he said.
The service is also much like doctor-booking website ZocDoc, but it’s much more expansive, Peres said.
“They put themselves in a box,” he said. “It’s an enormous box, but they put themselves in healthcare.”
Everseat allows users to book experts in other fields, including stylists, spas and restaurants.
Though users can mark favorites, they won’t be able to rate providers. Peres didn’t rule out scraping that data from other sources, however.
The app is currently free in the iTunes Store.
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