Venture capitalist David Parfett will serve as interim CEO of the online bookings behemoth.
Just six months after selling to private equity firm Potentia Capital, HotDoc founder Dr Ben Hurst has announced that he will be stepping down as CEO of the company he spent 14 years building.
He will remain on board as an advisor and “Chief Champion”.
The online booking engine is used by approximately two out of three GPs across the country and sold in February for $250 million.
Its ownership group now consists of Potentia Capital, Geoffrey Sayer’s private medtech investment firm Acclivis Group and long-term backer Airtree Ventures.
Airtree operating principal David Parfett, who has sat on the HotDoc board for three years, has been named interim CEO.
Writing on LinkedIn, Dr Hurst thanked the GP clinics which “gave us a go” in HotDoc’s early days and said it had been a “privilege” to serve the general practice community.
“However, as we’ve moved out of the startup phase, I’ve felt less energised by a role that demands more from me as a CEO and less as Founder,” he wrote.
“I’ve come to realise that I’m no longer the best person to lead this company – it’s time for a break. I love HotDoc. I love the people. But I’ve fallen out of love with the job.”
Mr Parfett, he said, had a “deep” knowledge of HotDoc and helped guide the company from startup to scale-up.
“I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Ben over the past three years and I have an enormous amount of respect for what he and the team have built and the mission behind it,” Mr Parfett told media.
“My focus over this period is to maintain continuity and momentum for the HotDoc team and customers while we find the right CEO for the next chapter to continue building from Ben’s legacy.”
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HotDoc has had its share of controversy.
The booking engine caused a stir last year when it launched, paused and then re-launched a telehealth on-demand feature which identified patients attempting to book a “low complexity” appointment at their regular GP clinic, and displayed the option for a same-day telehealth appointment at a different practice.
Reflecting on Dr Hurst’s retirement, NSW GP Dr Max Mollenkopf wrote on LinkedIn that while HotDoc had addressed many of the friction points in general practice, it had occasionally done this so well that it held the industry back.
“We moved on to portals, SMS systems, telehealth links, online forms, kiosks and payment requests. Each fixed a narrow problem, but none became a true digital operating layer for the patient’s experience. We totally missed the omnichannel bit,” Dr Mollenkopf wrote.
“People wanted to tell their practice what they needed but we left them with a calendar link and no other way to meaningfully be triaged or engaged.
“So in place of those limitations we continue to see the rise of digital only services. Telehealth only providers. 1800MEDICARE apps. Everyone else rushing to be the answer that consumer wants. A better front door for that consumer’s specific ‘point in time’ need but attached to more fragmented care.
“HotDoc solved booking well. But at a practice level we mistook digitising appointment selection for redesigning access to care and surrendered the front door.”
