Eric Nuss helps people get more of what they want and less of what they do not.
He has spent 25 years doing that from a lot of different chairs. He started in sales and spent six years running a territory that nearly tripled under him. Then he was asked to build something that did not exist. He created Henry Schein's Business Solutions division and founded the Dental Business Institute, a multi-session executive program he built, facilitated and taught. More than 300 owners came through, and a decade later they still bring the program up when they see him. He finished an MBA at the University of Iowa along the way.
Then the work became more personal. He founded and led companies, acquired practices, represented sellers, and structured ownership transitions across more than 100 transactions. He was responsible not just for giving advice, but for payroll, people, capital, risk, and the consequences of getting decisions wrong.
That experience included failure.
Growth outran the systems meant to carry the load, and the company came apart. What he learned in the years after became The Broke(n) Part(s), a field guide for founders building fast, breaking quietly, or starting over.
If you searched his name and found the coverage, what happened at Ssun Health is here in his own words, with the documents behind it.
Today he works alongside owners who want to grow with guardrails, so the business does not end up costing them their family, their health, or their integrity. He is the founder of XpoNential Management, which provides operations management and transaction advisory to owner-led businesses, and a co-founder of XpoDental, where he leads business development.
The work he remembers most is quieter. Owners who got their evenings back. Families who came through a sale better than they expected. Businesses that survived the year that should have ended them.
The longer version
Eric spent the first fifteen years of his life in Omaha, then moved with his family to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to finish high school. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Education, with a focus on science and athletic coaching, from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and an MBA from the University of Iowa.
His professional journey
His career began in a middle school classroom in Colorado Springs, then moved into sales and sales management, and from there into business development and entrepreneurship. Eric coached youth baseball and built a winning team around a short set of core values his players carried on and off the field. That coaching approach became the foundation of how he works with practices, and he has now spent more than twenty years in that space.
A career spent helping others succeed
Much of his work has been with dental practices moving through rapid growth or transition. He focuses on strategy, leadership development, and operational oversight, including acquisitions, practice integration, and building scalable systems for finance, HR, and compliance. Under his guidance, providers stay focused on patient care while enterprise value gets built at the practice level. He also advises owners on growth strategy, operational improvement, and preparing for ownership transitions.
Industry impact
One of the dental profession's most persistent gaps is the shortage of business leadership, and Eric has spent much of his career working on that gap. Most dentists excel clinically. Far fewer are taught to build a practice with lasting enterprise value, and far fewer still reach the end of a career with the business worth what they assumed it was worth. Eric has guided owners through the complexity of growth and transition by structuring ownership transitions alongside their tax and legal advisors, building scalable operating models, and putting systems in place that protect cash flow and keep teams intact.
Notable achievements
The Dental Business Institute was featured in Forbes in 2016, in a piece on bringing MBA-level business education into dentistry.
He is a published author in Dental Economics, with articles on practice leadership, multipractice ownership, and market change. He has been featured in Dental Tribune, DrBicuspid, Dental Products Report and Dentaltown, and appeared on the American Academy of Dental Group Practice speaker roster in 2025.
Coaching shaped the operating philosophy
Eric spent nearly four years coaching at STiKS Baseball Academy and close to two more coaching boys' basketball at Southeast Christian School. Both jobs came down to the same thing. Teach the fundamentals, hold the standard, and build a group that carries it without the coach in the room. That is the approach he brings to an operating team.
Experiences that shaped the work
During college, Eric studied abroad in Tanzania. The experience reshaped his perspective on frugality, materialism, and faith, and deepened his appreciation for other cultures. The transitions in his own career have shaped how he works as well. So has raising a blended family, which taught him to meet problems with empathy, flexibility, and a wider view.
Personal life
Eric lives in Parker, Colorado, with his blended family, which keeps his life full of energy and perspective. He and his wife, Megan, are raising six kids, Blake, Brooke, Reed, Andie, Josie, and Savanna, and they are the heart of everything he does. Whether they are traveling, cheering at a basketball game, or just having dinner together, his family is the daily reminder of why building businesses that create time and freedom actually matters.
