Today we’re sitting down with Tiger Safarov, the founder of ZenOne, to ask a few questions about how the platform actually works in a real clinic. How you search, compare, order, and keep shelves honest, plus what changes in the first month.
Tiger Safarov immigrated from Russia to the U.S. in 2005 and learned English by singing along to Frank Sinatra on his commute. At 22—while studying engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago—he founded Siegel Construction, which grew into a leading dental/medical design-build firm.
In 2015 he launched ZenSupplies to streamline how practices order supplies, bootstrapping it to profitability by 2019 and pioneering ideas like real-time price comparison. Today he continues building for practices through ZenOne and hosts the ZenOne Podcast; off the clock, he’s with family, playing hockey, or hunting for good finds at the farmer’s market.
We lined up a handful of practical questions about ordering, pricing, and inventory—and Tiger Safarov gladly answered! Let’s start.
What is ZenOne and who is it for?
I’m Tiger, and ZenOne is the control room for your dental supplies. Private practices use it to compare prices across suppliers on one screen, build a single cart, and keep shelves honest with simple QR labels and quick scans. Less hunting, fewer “we’re out” emergencies, and a clean record of what you bought, when, and from whom.
Walk us through the workflow in 20 seconds.
It’s actually pretty simple:
- Search for the item you actually use,
- See prices from your suppliers side-by-side,
- Add everything you need to one cart,
- Place the order,
- Distributors ship like they always do,
- When boxes arrive, scan to restock and your counts update.
That’s the loop. Here it’s boring in the best possible way.
What changes in Week 1 vs. Week 4?
Week 1: We connect your suppliers, favorite your top SKUs, and label the handful of bins that always go empty. Your next order runs through one cart. Chaos level drops immediately.
Week 4: Reorder points are set, budgets start telling you where money leaks, and last-minute supply runs quiet down. You’ll be spending smarter, tracking faster, and your team will stop treating the supply closet like a scavenger hunt.
How does ordering and payment work across multiple suppliers?
Build one cart across vendors. If it’s a partner vendor, you pay inside ZenOne (we process via Stripe) and get a single, itemized receipt from us. For other vendors, we still submit the order through ZenOne, but billing happens directly with that supplier—exactly like you do today. Your team feels one clean checkout; your accounting stays tidy.
Will shipping timelines or reliability change?
No. Orders are fulfilled and shipped by the same distributors you already use. Same trucks, same timelines, same tracking—just less clicking to get there.
Do supplier perks like free-shipping thresholds and promos still apply?
Yes. If a supplier offers free shipping at $X or runs a promo, you still qualify when you order through ZenOne. We don’t mess with their policies; we just make the path to the cart shorter.
Can I see pricing before connecting a supplier account?
Yes—with a little nuance. For partner vendors, you’ll see pricing the moment you create a ZenOne account. For everyone else, you’ll see your exact contract pricing after we connect your supplier logins (same credentials you already use). Until then, we still help you make decisions: we surface product matches and market signals so you can spot where savings likely are, then flip to your real numbers once the connection is live. Bottom line: comparisons reflect your reality, not list price fantasy.
Are prices “real-time” today?
Real-time across the whole industry is the goal. Today, most of the items that clinics order every week are updated frequently (many at least daily), and we’re adding more live data pipes every quarter. As of September 2025, about 80% of products update at least daily; coverage keeps expanding.
When a price mismatch slips through, suppliers almost always honor it once—we’ll help you sort it out. The roadmap is simple: expand real-time coverage supplier by supplier until “Is this accurate?” stops being a question.
We have negotiated pricing, will ZenOne reflect our actual costs?
Yes. Send us your pricing agreements or let us pull them via your supplier accounts, and we’ll load those rates so every search and comparison shows your numbers. If you’re in a buying group or have tiered discounts, we map that too. Budgets, analytics, and reorder suggestions are then anchored to the truth—what you actually pay—not a generic catalog.
How does inventory tracking work day-to-day (QR/labels, cycle counts, reorder points?
Start simple: label the bins that always run out. Each label has a QR; when you scan, ZenOne pulls up the exact item, updates the count, and shows current pricing if you need to reorder. We set reorder points on your top SKUs so the system nudges you before you hit zero. For counts, we run short cycle counts—five to ten minutes per zone—so you never have to do a painful “everything at once” audit. Receive → scan → restock → counts update. It’s faster than a spreadsheet and way harder to mess up.
Roles and permissions: who can order, see budgets, and manage stock?
ZenOne supports user permissions for ordering, budgets, and inventory so each team member sees only what they need. In practice, clinics set up roles like assistants, admins, and doctors, and use approval thresholds so orders that push past budget require a dentist/admin OK. For groups, you can allocate a budget per location and review/approve orders before they’re submitted to vendors.
What order history and spend reporting do I get out of the box?
Everything lands in one place—what you bought, when, from whom, how much, and which location. You get order history & delivery updates and standard spend/usage reports with filters (supplier, category, date range, location). Reports can be printed or exported, and you can download records for a given date range for audits and compliance. The goal is simple: fewer surprises, cleaner books, and no “where did that money go?” moments.
Do I have to load catalogs myself? And can I order from suppliers we don’t use yet?
No homework. Tell us which suppliers you use, and we’ll stand up the catalogs for you—names, SKUs, units, the whole mess cleaned up. If you’ve got negotiated pricing, we load that, so you see your numbers, not fantasy list price. Want to expand? We can help you connect to new suppliers or enable guest checkout where it’s supported, so you get access without a weeks-long signup dance.
What does setup look like—any installs? How fast can we go live?
Nothing to install—it’s all in the browser. A typical quick start looks like this:
- Share your supplier list and logins → we connect accounts.
- Star your top 30–50 SKUs → we label the bins that always run out.
- Set simple reorder points → place your first unified cart.
Single-location teams often place their first order the same day; multi-location rollouts depend on catalog count and approvals, but the loop is the same. If you want hand-holding, I’ll jump on a short call and walk your lead assistant through the first order and scans.
Plans and trial, what’s the first step?
Start with a demo and a free 14-day trial so your team can click around and run one order end-to-end. If you send us a recent supplier invoice, we’ll do a quick savings check and show where price deltas likely live. Current plans start from $49/month. Details are always on the Pricing page—check there for the latest, then we’ll tailor onboarding to how your clinic actually works.
Conclusion
That’s a wrap. Big thanks to Tiger Safarov for the straight answers and practical tips. If your supply closet has ever hijacked a morning huddle, this is your sign to fix it, once and for all, so you can get back to dentistry.
Ready to fix your dental inventory and ordering management?
Get a quick walkthrough, connect suppliers, and place your first unified cart with ZenOne.