Introduction

Speedy Sticks is a Concierge healthcare company established in New York City in 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The term concierge is used to explain Speedy Sticks' at-home business model. Speedy Sticks offers Clients healthcare services from the comfort of their own homes. Speedy Sticks sends healthcare professionals to service the clients and the transport testing result to a partnered lab to analyze the result which Speedy Sticks will then provide the client with their testing results in a quick and efficient way.

Speedy Sticks' main mode of operation is COVID-19 testing which has helped Speedy Sticks establish a solid market share in the COVID-19 business since the inception of the company in 2020. Speedy Sticks has since expanded its range of services to include a variety of other healthcare services which will be further discussed in the next two sections of this project.

Speedy Sticks has also expanded its operation from only operation in New York City to have three offices in New York City, Miami, and San Francisco. Speedy Sticks now provides almost all of its concierge healthcare services nationwide within the continental United States.

Speedy Sticks is now attempting to reposition itself to less of a company that provides concierge COVID-19 tests and more of a company that offers a variety of concierge healthcare services that cover a vast portion of their clients' healthcare service needs.

Speedy Sticks is currently facing uncertainty about its longevity in a post-pandemic world since most of the profit Speedy Sticks has made in the past few years of its operation has been from COVID-19 testing services. And although their other healthcare service offerings have also been successful, none have been as popular as the COVID-19 testing services. Another issue that Speedy Sticks faces is the lack of Marketing for these other services. Speedy Sticks never really needed much marketing due to the high demand for COVID-19 testing needs since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. However, with the effects of the pandemic slowing down, Speedy Sticks must quickly reposition itself as a concierge provider of many healthcare services and not just a COVID-19 testing company.

We interviewed the Co-founders of Speedy Sticks in November of 2022 to get a grasp of company operations and current problems that would illuminate our consultation project for Speedy Sticks. This project will provide Speedy Sticks' company history, define its current problem, conduct a review of the literature of similar companies in the healthcare industry and then give a strategy implementation and evaluation to help Speedy Sticks resolve its current problem.

Company Background

Speedy Sticks began its operation in 2020 when two friends Mr. Daniel Buitrago and Dr. Jeremy Jacob saw a gap in the market for at-home COVID-19 at the height of the COVID-19 global pandemic. As a result, Speedy Sticks was created.

Prior to creating Speedy Sticks, Mr. Daniel Buitrago was a Wall Street broker and had many years working in the financial industry in New York City. Mr. Buitrago currently acts as the president and Co-founder of Speedy Sticks and resides in Miami, Florida where Speedy Sticks has its second largest office after its main office in Mid-town Manhattan in New York City.

Dr. Jeremy Jacob (PharmD) is a pharmacist and had many years of experience working in hospitals and major pharmacies around New York City prior to establishing Speedy Sticks. Dr. Jacob currently acts as the CEO and Co-founder of Speedy Sticks and is in charge of the largest Speedy Sticks office located in Mid-town Manhattan. Dr. Jacob utilizes his healthcare knowledge and business knowledge to help inform all of Speedy Sticks' business strategies.

Speedy Sticks was founded and established on the premise of providing convenient testing services to help with the global COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020 it was still difficult to find a COVID-19 testing sight that did not have long waiting periods that would stretch from hours to sometimes days before you are able to get tested. Speedy Sticks Strived to make testing quick, easy, accessible, and convenient for anyone seeking to get tested.

Like many Start-up companies, Speedy Sticks began its operation on a small scale. They created a website, hired 6 certified phlebotomy workers that were also trained for COVID-19 testing, and began to offer Concierge COVID-19 testing services on the island of Manhattan. Within a month, Speedy sticks had become very popular that they hired 10 more phlebotomy workers and expanded their operations to Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. It was at this time that Speedy Sticks began to also offer Phlebotomy services such as routine blood tests, and vitamin panels to its list of services. We spoke with CEO and Co-founder Dr. Jeremy Jacob and he said:"We were seeing such demand for our concierge testing services that the next logical step was to add more services that people can hire us to do. With it being 2020 many people were hesitant about going to a doctor's office or a laboratory and sit in waiting rooms to get a blood test or a COVID-19. Which is why we partnered with a laboratory in the city the handled our COVID-19 samples and expanded our partnership with them to include analysis of Phlebotomy tests that we would provide clients from the comfort of their dwellings." Speedy Sticks was now offering all these extensive phlebotomy services in a concierge business model by going to the clients' homes without having them wait in a Doctor's office or a laboratory to get them like they usually would.

Speedy Sticks was determined to keep the momentum going and establish itself as a leader in Concierge testing and thus, soon expanded to offering both COVID-19 testing and Phlebotomy testing to the Tri-state area. Further increasing their client base and their reputation as a reliable and convenient way to get tested for COVID-19 without having to leave the comfort of your own home. At the beginning of 2021, Speedy Sticks scored its first major corporate contract with Netflix studios. Netflix was filming a show in Florida and was searching for a reliable COVID-19 testing company that would provide daily testing for everyone involved in the production and filming process. Speedy Sticks hired and trained four Healthcare workers and sent them to Florida for this three-week-long filming period to provide on-sight COVID-19 testing. While accompanying the healthcare workers in Florida, President and Co-founder Daniel Buitrago saw the potential for expanding Speedy Sticks' operation further south to include the state of Florida.

" I saw this huge opportunity for expanding and operating our services in the state of Florida and decided to take a leap of faith and rent an office space in Miami to establish a second base of operations for Speedy Sticks." Says Mr. Buitrago. Speedy Sticks began to see increased demand in Florida and expanded its operations outside of Miami to help reach as many clients requiring their testing services as possible.

In New York City, Speedy Sticks scored a major corporate client, NASDAQ which is the most active stock trading venue in the United States and is headquartered in Mid-town Manhattan in New York City. Speedy Sticks hired a team of 36 Healthcare workers - mostly nurses and Phlebotomists- that would alternate working three shifts in the NASDAQ. Everyone entering the NASDAQ building needed to be tested and Speedy Sticks appointed healthcare workers were there to ensure that testing went quickly and efficiently and that COVID-19 results were reported and documented accurately for everyone entering the building.

Soon Speedy Sticks began providing testing services for another corporate client, The Whitney Museum in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Speedy Sticks were hired to provide COVID-19 testing services to employees of the Whitney as well as testing for special events and gatherings being held at The Whitney Museum.

With increased popularity, demand, and income from these major corporate clients, in 2021 Speedy Sticks decided to expand its service offerings to include California. Speedy Sticks opened an office in San Francisco and was soon approached by Neuralink - which is a neurotechnology company that develops implantable brain-computer interfaces. Founded by Elon Musk - they hired Speedy Sticks to conduct COVID-19 testing at the Neuralink headquarters in San Francisco California.

Motivated by the success on the West Coast, Speedy Sticks further expanded its service offering to include more than COVID-19 testing services and Phlebotomy testing services. Speedy Sticks first expanded its business operations by offering DOT-approved drug testing services. The Department Of Transportation - approved drug testing is required for all Drivers operating commercial vehicles - especially large trucks to get regularly tested for potential Drug usage. Speedy Sticks now offers these DOT-approved drug tests nationwide and partners with several labs across the continental United States to handle the sample and process the results of the drug tests.

Speedy Sticks has also further expanded to include other services such as Massage therapy. Clients can book a massage therapy service from the Speedy Sticks website and Speedy Sticks will send a certified massage therapist to provide massage therapy from the comfort of the client's home or office. Another service that Speedy Sticks launched in 2021 is the concierge Liquid IV-Therapy service that offers replenishment of electrolytes and essential nutrients in a liquid Intravenous Therapy. These services are mainly utilized by athletes or people who are fatigued after a long travel or are hungover.

The last set of services that Speedy Sticks has added to its repertoire of service are Botox Injections (currently only offered in Florida), DNA baby Gender reveals testing for pregnant women, DNA paternity testing (offered nationwide with the exception of New York State), and Lastly, Speedy Stick has partnered with Doctors and Nurse Practitioners to Provide Virtual medicine service in which Client can book through Speedy Study to meet with a healthcare provider virtually without having to leave the comfort of their own home. Speedy Sticks has now expanded to include a team of over 350 healthcare workers operating nationwide within the continental United States.

Define the problem

After enjoying 2 full years of national success and scoring big corporate clients and partners ships with Clients Such as Nasdaq, Netflix Studios, and the Whitney Museum. Speedy Sticks' operations nationwide have begun to slow down along with the severity of the global COVID-19 pandemic. As mentioned before, Speedy Sticks operates on both the Individual client level (visiting clients at their own home/office/hotel to conduct the service) and on a corporate large-scale level. For these corporate clients, Speedy Sticks would sign a contract - usually, the contract would include multiple service days that Speedy Sticks healthcare workers would show up at designated locations and provide these services. Currently, Speedy Sticks still has contracts with most of its major corporate clients nationwide, however, the demand and frequency for Speedy Sticks' services have decreased. We spoke with Speedy Sticks' President & Co-Founder Daniel Buitrago to learn more about how these contracts have changed over the last six months and how has that changed the way Speedy Sticks presents itself to these clients. Mr. Buitrago had the following to say:"You know when we first approached Nasdaq in August of 2020 COVID-19 was at its height and people were still very panicked about being outside of their homes, or let-alone be in an office space with others. When [Speedy Sticks] approached them to offer daily COVID-19 testing services it did not require a lot of convincing. [Speedy Sticks] then signed a year contract with Nasdaq for $ 2 million to offer COVID-19 to all NASDAQ employees from Monday to Friday between 6 am and 6 pm. It was a huge win for [Speedy Sticks]. A company that was just starting to establish a name for itself was now entering a major contract with a corporation like Nasdaq. That contract changed the trajectory of Speedy Sticks' future."The contract between NASDAQ and Speedy Sticks then went on to change after five months. In early January 2021, NASDAQ requested that Speedy Sticks provide more nurses and phlebotomists to cater to more NASDAQ employees returning to work full-time in the office. "We were ecstatic, I mean we were being offered even more money to provide these testing services and the demand for our services was not decreasing by any means." In August of 2022 after 2 years of offering the same Contract to Speedy Sticks, NASDAQ decided that it no longer needs to text all its employees every day they are working in the office and thus now only hires Speedy Sticks to offer COVID-19 testing for special events and large gatherings. This scale-down of services is explained by the decreased demand for testing, the low frequency of people contracting COVID-19, as well as relaxed COVID-19 restrictions nationwide.

Another major corporate client of Speedy Sticks is Netflix Studios. Speedy Sticks began working with Netflix Studios in late 2020 and have since established a trusting relationship with them working on several projects all around the continental United States. Through its relationship with Netflix Studios, Speedy Sticks has attracted other Similar Clients such as A&E Studios and Bravo TV - all have which hired Speedy Sticks for their productions. Unlike its contract with NASDAQ, these contracts have not been slowing down, and demand testing during filming and productions have stayed the same - if not increased since the start of the pandemic. "These major streaming platforms and studios have gained so much popularity during the pandemic and have made so much money that they now produce so many shows and each one of those shows requires COVID-19 testing for each member involved in filming and production. That's where [Speedy Sticks] comes in." says Speedy Sticks' President & Co-Founder Daniel Buitrago. Speedy Sticks now hires healthcare workers specifically for these filming and production contracts. Their only job is to show up at the filming sight every day and make sure everyone is tested and cleared to work around others safely.

The last aspect of clients that Speedy Sticks provides services for, as mentioned in the previous section is individual. According to Speedy Sticks' President & Co-Founder Daniel Buitrago, Individual Clients were all he had in mind when we started Speedy Sticks. "What We had envisioned for Speedy Sticks is a concierge COVID-19 testing and Phlebotomy company that would provide seamless and convenient healthcare services from the comfort of people's dwelling - whether it be a hotel their staying at, an office space they're working from or their own home." Speedy Sticks has found success in providing healthcare services (primarily COVID-19 testing) for individual clients and has established a trustworthy reputation for itself."We take pride in our excellent services and our friendly and professional healthcare staff. We have seen many clients multiple times because they feel comfortable with our testing and healthcare services and choose us over the competition time and time again" says President & Co-Founder Daniel Buitrago. Bookings for COVID-19 testing from individual clients have predictably decreased as travel regulations and COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxed nationwide.

The current problem that Speedy Sticks is facing is longevity in a post-pandemic world. How do they keep achieving the success they have achieved over the past few years in a world that no longer has COVID-19 as its main concern? As mentioned in the previous section, Speedy Sticks offers a variety of healthcare services that are non-COVID-19 related. Speedy Sticks offers almost all general Phlebotomy tests - such as a Basic & Comprehensive Metabolic panel, Thyroid panel, Vitamin panel, enzyme markers, and a DHEA Sulfate Serum Test. Phlebotomy tests are Speedy Sticks' second most popular service among all of the healthcare services. "Almost 50% of our individual client booked services for Q2, 3, & 4 of 2022 have been Phlebotomy services which have been delightful news for us, especially with bookings COVID-19 slowing down. COVID-19 services used to account for almost all of our bookings for 2020 & all of 2021. These numbers Give me hope that Speedy Sticks has a space in the market after COVID-19 testing becomes obsolete." Says Speedy Sticks President and Co-founder Daniel Buitrago.

Speedy Sticks needs to re-position itself as not only a COVID-19 testing company that provides other services, but as a concierge healthcare company that provides a variety of healthcare services from the comfort of people's hotels, offices, homes, or any space that they are occupying and need healthcare services from. The difference that Speedy Sticks faces with offering these services is how people perceive these services. In the case of COVID-19 -Especially during the pandemic testing was viewed as a necessary service and thus, Speedy Sticks never needed to do much marketing or convincing to get clients -whether it be individual clients or Corporate clients- to choose them for their services because everyone was required to get tested when they traveled, went to work, went to school, and event, etc.

Speedy Sticks needs a comprehensive marketing and repositioning plan that showcases the variety of services that they offer which range from COVID-19 testing, Phlebotomy, and Drug testing to luxury services such as massage therapy, IV-Hydration therapy, Massage Therapy, and Botox injections. In this consulting project, we will conduct a literature review of the healthcare market and potential competitors that Speedy Sticks will likely compete with. We will provide an analysis of the problem that speedy Sticks faces - which is maintaining success and longevity in a post-COVID-19 world as well as establishing itself as a concierge healthcare company that provides an array of services nationwide. We will formulate, implement and evaluate a strategy that will help position Speedy Sticks to become a successful concierge healthcare service provider for a variety of services and help Speedy Sticks distinguish itself by branding and positioning it asthe future of healthcare.

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