“When you have people you get along with, trust, and are aligned with, the challenges are easier to solve.” – Ingrid Murra

Found-er (noun): a person who establishes an institution or settlement. 

When the problem to solve is one a person has first-hand experience and in-depth knowledge in, a founder’s journey reflects one of passion, perseverance, and the drive to make things better than they are. 

Being mission-driven is one thing, but being mission-driven with the resiliency to keep pushing forward and carving out one’s entrepreneurial journey in the dental field is on a level of its own. Dr. Ingrid Murra, Founder of Two Front, shares her story with the Unanimous team about the problem she was determined to fix in the industry, the decisions that led her to start Two Front, and her thoughts on the future of work. 

The Calling

Growing up in a family of physicians, Ingrid Murra always wanted to help others. Having personally experienced orthodontics work (4 years of braces) and realizing the impact it has on humanity, and after beginning her residency and realizing that most patients were not receiving high quality orthodontic care, whether through mail-order aligners or dentist-directed aligners, she couldn’t sleep for 6 months as she knew she had to fix the problems and pains of the industry.

She learned that for patients to receive high quality and modern orthodontic care, patients need a specialist (orthodontist) and the best orthodontic product (Invisalign). But with a massive shortage of orthodontists (60% of US counties don’t have one) and orthodontists being the #1 most in debt professional in the country, she realized there had to be a better care delivery system. Her ‘aha’ moment emerged with Two Front – the modern orthodontic practice through a tech-enabled services platform. 

During her orthodontics residency program at Harvard Dental School, Ingrid began her entrepreneurial journey by auditing classes at HBS. Inspired by her learnings found in books like Zero to One (Blake Masters, Peter Thiel) and How I Built This (Guy Raz), the Two Front founder journey called and she answered. 

Early Days as a First-Time Founder

UC: Tell us a brief story about your journey founding Two Front.

Ingrid: The early days of Two Front included months of preparation from financial models and deck building to learning how to pitch. In the beginning, I was stumbling over my words (took me a while to figure out how to do it all), but in the process, I met people who believed in me and what I was building with Two Front. From the first yes to seeing investments hitting our bank account – the early days were a crazy feeling. 

I pivoted between three different business models in the early days before landing where we are now. Through that, I realized I was married to the problem rather than the solution – B2B2C was the model for Two Front upon my discovery and it’s going to change the game for orthodontists, dentists, and patients. 

UC: What were some early wins you saw as a team that gave you all the motivation to keep building?

Ingrid: (smiles) My first customer win was my own dentist from West Hollywood. Not coming from a tech background and building solo for two years, I found a support network of other entrepreneurs that helped motivate me. I hired my first team member in September 2021. We faced a complicated business model—a three-sided marketplace—and were solving a lot of problems at once. But we were always mission-driven and it gave patients confidence – experiencing their confidence was an early win. 

Orthodontics changed my life and I was determined to provide that to others. Besides changing patients lives at scale, the other piece that inspired me to build this business was to go through the schooling of becoming an orthodontist. What people don’t realize is the pain and journey it takes to become an orthodontist—you’re not making a penny until you’re 30 years old. They’re the country’s highest in-debt professionals, and I want to empower orthodontists to have a debt-free way to start a practice. 

UC: What have been some of the hardest challenges / greatest lessons in your entrepreneurial journey? 

Ingrid: Moving slow to move fast. Initially, my biggest challenge was hiring. I had to learn how to hire slow and fire fast – you have to be thoughtful and methodical about hiring. I also learned to move fast, you have to truly build something thoughtfully. I’m guilty as charged in putting too much pressure on growth. 

Today, we’re flipping the switch – from spreadsheets to real infrastructure. When you deliver the best patient experience, everyone is happy and that’s our #1 goal. We actively work on the best patient experience to find our product-market fit and will continue to grow from there. 

UC: When and where did scale come into play? 

Ingrid: We have been focusing maniacally on the patient experience. We’re now confident that we can scale a great experience and are live in 6 states.

An Outlook on the Future

UC: How do you look at the next 5 years? 

Ingrid: We’re going nationwide this year. Our next two years will include developing the ability to grow internationally. This as a 7+ year journey, and we’re just getting started.

UC: What does the future of work look like for you and Two Front? 

Ingrid: Our team is half remote (we’re at 8 team members at the time of this interview). I believe a team needs heads down time, but in-person time is so important as well. We make an effort to meet every month to give them that face-to-face space for creativity, collaboration, community, and more. Every day is like war, but when you have people you get along with, trust, and are aligned with, the challenges are easier to solve. 

Words of Wisdom

UC: Any other words of wisdom or advice you’d like to share with those embarking on founding journeys of their own? 

Do it to make an impact on others. If you’re focused on making an impact, the pain of being a founder is worth it.