Shabshab takes over

GOLETA, Calif. – Inogen’s new CEO, Nabil Shabshab, says the company may be “placing its bets a little differently” in 2021. 

During a recent conference call to discuss the company’s latest financial results, Shabshab’s first, an analyst asked how he planned to balance Inogen’s various business segments – direct to consumer, business to business and rental.  

“Of course, (the business-to-business segment) remains a focus, but we need to balance it with the direct-to-consumer (segment), as well as the rental market,” he said. “The rental market that we have started focusing on again recently has shown some positive signs. We will continue to double-down on that because we are seeing good growth rates there, as well as continue to refine our model for the direct-to-consumer (segment) and see how we can leverage some of our strengths and optimize our performance and spend in that space. We're not going to take our eye off any of them, but we are going to be placing bets a little bit differently after I have a little bit more time with the team to look at the return in terms of the investment in one of the three channels, as well as what tweaks are required in each one of them.” 

Shabshab was named as Scott Wilkinson’s replacement earlier this year. 

Shabshab told investors that two things drew him to Inogen, the first being a POC market that’s only 18% penetrated based on their review of Medicare data. 

“The market itself is not penetrated that much and leaves a lot of room for growth for us, as well as our partners in the channel,” he said. “So, we’ll be looking, as part of that, into what areas can we strengthen (our) investments, including some of the capabilities we have and some of the underlying technology that we need to look at, and looking at the business model to get to that aspired growth rate.” 

The second draw for Shabshab was Inogen’s purpose. 

“Inogen is a company with a focus really on improving respiratory therapy around the world,” he said. “The commitment of the team that I saw during the discussions we were having provides for a unique opportunity to serve patients’ needs and deliver on their expectations, as well as the expectations of shareholders.”