ABOUT THIS EPISODE
NexChapter is the home of unfiltered wisdom from post exit founders. Recorded in The Republic Studio, this show is for founders who are scaling businesses and founders who have sold and are figuring out what the hell happens next. Each episode explores the real story behind the exit, the decisions that mattered, and the personal transition that follows when the deal is done.
In this episode, Raman Sehgal sits down with Dr. Michael Filosi. Michael is a fully-fledged, card-carrying nerd, and he would not have it any other way. He loves to solve hard, interesting, meaningful problems and is ever curious about how to do things better and dive deeper into those areas of life and business that interest him. A dentist by profession and training, Michael turned a worn-out two surgery dental practice with a big heart and great bones into a ten surgery facility in Adelaide, Australia, before exiting via sale in September 2025.
When others zigged, Michael zagged. Forget about hard sells and “pushing” dental treatment on patients, Michael decided that his business would focus on looking after people, doing the right thing, and trust that patients would tell their friends and family. Guess what? It worked. A husband to Greta (also a dentist) and father to an eight-year-old daughter, Michael spends his spare time reading and indulging his love of the twin joys of learning and play – be that a board game, a magic trick, a basketball scrimmage with friends, or building a treehouse. Not sure where he is in a crowd? Look for the tallest person in the room, and it is probably Michael.
What we cover
- Buying a non-sexy dental practice that “nobody wanted,” seeing the potential, then expanding a single site into a 10 chair flagship rather than chasing the multi site empire model
- The pivotal decision to come off the tools, park ego, recruit better clinicians, and turn a founder dependent practice into a business that could run without him
- How he grew a mature, local healthcare business by dominating digital trust signals, especially Google reviews, and treating it as 'word of thumb'
- Why the joy disappeared when the work shifted from building to fixing, and how stress has a real physical cost for founders
- A proactive exit process, including calling likely buyers directly to create competitive tension, and structuring a walk in walk out sale with cash up front and low key person risk
- Life after the deal, taking time, saying no, and waiting to fall in love with the next hard, interesting, meaningful problem rather than forcing the next move
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelfilosi/
Your host Raman Sehgal is the author of the best selling book The Floundering Founder, Toronto Chapter Lead at Post Exit Founders (PEF), investor, and founder of several niche firms and platforms in the pharma and biopharma services space, one of which he sold a majority stake in to private equity. He created NexChapter to capture the hard earned wisdom of founders who have been through an exit and are willing to share what really worked, what surprised them, and what comes next. Connect with Raman.
