Joey Stiver, an autodidact entrepreneur, has made a name for himself in the medical industry with his innovative and affordable products. Stiver dropped out of college, but his love for learning and helping people led him to create several successful businesses, including a supplement brand and a program that tutors underserved youth and students called Inspiring Minds.
Stiver’s latest venture, MedLab International Inc., was named the fastest-growing privately-owned company in Ohio in 2020 and ranked #25 on the INC5000. When the pandemic hit, Stiver and his team doubled down on their efforts to help the community and many other communities across the nation with personal protective equipment (PPE) items, sending over 100,000 items to those in need. Additionally, they started a telemedicine branch of the business, MinuteMD, Inc., connecting patients with licensed physicians who can help care for them.
One thing that sets MedLab International apart from other companies in the industry is its commitment to providing premium products at an affordable price. Stiver says that rather than price-gouging, his team sources the highest quality supplies available and offers their products at the best possible pricing.
Stiver emphasizes that safety is the utmost concern for his team, and they would never put out products that aren’t of the highest quality or that could hurt someone. Most of their products are regulated Class II or III medical devices, and they meet and exceed FDA 510k or quality standards to ensure their products are safe and effective for customers.
To research and develop new products, Stiver keeps his ear on the streets, listening to the needs of the people to solve their problems. However, growing too fast was one of the biggest challenges Stiver faced as an entrepreneur. His business grew quickly, spread across three states with four warehouse locations and two retail stores, but lacked inventory management and trackable metrics. Stiver had to resolve these issues quickly to keep up with the demand of the business and their growing number of customers.
Marketing is essential to every business, and Stiver says it needs to be done well and strategically planned. They’ve hired and fired probably five firms at this point, and the best marketing strategy is making a product of equal quality at a lower price point and putting it in front of the customer to see its value and how it can solve their problem.
Stiver and his team are always listening and reading everything they can to stay on top of the latest trends and developments in the medical industry. The digital care side of the business is growing, and they plan to enter new niche categories in 2023, which Stiver says will make a drastic impact on the industry.
For someone interested in starting a business in the medical industry, Stiver advises being committed and patient, as there are many regulatory hurdles, approvals, and red tape to navigate through. As for the future of the medical industry, Stiver sees the need for their products continuing to grow as people age, have surgery, get sick, and so on. The longer they can sustain and grow in this space, the more notoriety and consumer
trust there will be behind their brand(s). Stiver emphasizes that their biggest strategy is execution, putting a plan in place of where they need to be and adapting to changes in the industry.
