Urgently Ortho

The Opportunity

Orthopedic surgeon, Ephraim Dickenson, got more than he bargained for when he enrolled in a 10-week business program at UC Berkeley. He started the program to gain more business expertise to start his own practice. At its end, he had also found a business partner, Liu-Chan Cheng.

Together—with Liu-Chan Cheng’s experience as a founder of APAC Bioskills and Ephraim Dickenson’s expertise as an orthopedic surgeon—they had the background to open an orthopedic practice.

But they needed more capital and had little collateral to back a loan.

The Challenge

While Liu-Chan and Ephraim had qualified for financing with other lenders, they became frustrated with the length of the closing process and their loan officers’ professionalism. They were also looking for a lender that could grow with their business.
Lui-Chan and Ephraim were first introduced to Celtic’s loan officer, Michael Rice, when he worked at another bank. But due to Michael’s responsiveness and Celtic’s ability to grow with their practice, they followed Michael to Celtic Bank.

Because of Liu Chan’s and Ephriam’s impressive backgrounds and their innovative business plan of providing mobile orthopedic care at 20% of the cost of traditional practices, Celtic was able to provide a projection-based loan with 25% down.

The Solution

Financing from Celtic enabled Ephriam and Liu Chan to open Urgently Ortho, a mobile orthopedic clinic that provides on-site care seven days a week, including evenings.

In less than a year of their practice opening, Urgently Ortho has the highest Google business rating for orthopedics in San Francisco, with 5 stars and over a hundred reviews. With such overnight success, Ephriam and Liu are well on their way to opening their second location.