A deal with Microsoft and a revamped business model has led to a local startup opening offices in southern Florida, making a big splash in the region and beyond.

McKinney-based CourMed, a concierge health care services delivery company, quietly opened a regional office in Miami Beach in November. Now, it has its sights set on international expansion.

“Miami is an international city,” Derrick Miles, CourMed founder and CEO, told Dallas Innovates. “We’ve already served patients from Italy, Australia, and Mexico.”

$500K investment-free loan from Microsoft

Last fall, CourMed was the recipient of the first investment from Microsoft’s $50 million commitment to invest in Black-owned companies. The company awarded CourMed a $500,000 five-year, interest-free loan following completion of the 12-month Microsoft for Startups program—something Miles attributes to CourMed’s pivot from a prescription delivery service to one that focuses on health care services from nurses and dentists to phlebotomists and laboratories.

Derrick L. Miles, President and CEO of CourMed [Photo courtesy of CourMed]

“There’s an opportunity for us to really create something new in the marketplace that doesn’t exist,” Miles said. “This is a totally different type of care. We call it the antithesis of seven-minute medicine.”

Following that, an advisor reached out to the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, the region’s economic development organization that was looking to transform Miami Beach’s reputation from a party town into a tech hub. Along with other tech firms like website builder Wix, CourMed landed a $240,000 four-year grant to plant a regional office there and hire 10 new employees—a move that would bring its current team size to around 22.

So, CourMed set up shop in the Miami Beach Edition, a luxury hotel, where the company has seen demand for things like COVID-19 testing, monoclonal antibodies, and vaccines in the tourism-focused area. Miles said the Greater South Florida region has now become CourMed’s biggest market.

Relaunching its new model in North Texas

With the success of CourMed’s concierge health care services delivery model, the company is planning to sunset its prescription deliveries—though some will still be available upon request—and will relaunch its new model in North Texas later this month. The company has also expanded its presence in California and Arizona, while entering new markets like Las Vegas, Seattle, and Portland. And later this year, CourMed is looking to expand internationally to South and Central America.

Miles notes the Microsoft deal will help fuel the company’s growth. As part of the deal, CourMed will bring its software into the Microsoft Marketplace, allowing others to mimic its services and split about 80% of the revenue with CourMed.

“Microsoft is one of four companies that has a presence in every country in the world,” Miles said. “So we’re looking to start putting nurses on planes and going different places around the world… to provide our end-to-end concierge health care solution in areas where you have lots of tourists.”

Revenue surpassed $1M in 2021

The company’s expanded operations have led to financial gains. Miles said 2021 was the first year the CourMed’s revenue surpassed $1 million, and he anticipates that to potentially quadruple this year. In late 2020, the company took on some of its first outside funding since launching in 2018 with a $300,000 investment from the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund, alongside other local startups Kanarys, Zirtue, and ShearShare. It followed that up in 2021 with grant funding from the McKinney Economic Development Corporation’s Innovation Fund to grow its headquarters in the city and create 22 tech jobs over the course of two years.  

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