Lasso MD Is a 2026 Inc. Power Partner. Here's What That Means

Inc. published its 2026 Power Partners list today, and Lasso MD is on it, in the Advertising, Marketing & Sales category.

I'm a co-founder and I run sales there, so take everything below knowing that. I'm proud of this one. But a post that just says "we won an award" doesn't help anyone running a practice.

So here's how the award actually works, and how I'd read any agency's awards before signing with them. Ours included.

What is the Inc. Power Partner Award?

It's Inc.'s yearly list of the B2B companies that small and midsize businesses trust most. Think of it as the vendors behind the scenes: tech, recruiting, legal, and marketing.

Inc. sorts the list by category. The 2026 Advertising, Marketing & Sales list has 50 companies on it. Lasso MD is the only one that focuses on dental.

How does Inc. choose Power Partners?

This is the part that matters, because it tells you what the badge is worth. Inc.'s methodology has four steps:

1. Application. The company applies and picks its categories.
2. Client surveys. The company hands Inc. between 3 and 10 clients who used it in the past year. Inc. sends those clients a four-question survey on how likely they are to recommend the company, then scores the answers.
3. Judging. Inc.'s editors score each application using the survey results, open-source research on the company, and its written answers. The top scorers move on.
4. Vetting. Inc.'s research team runs background checks. A company that fails on accuracy, fairness, transparency or ethics can be disqualified.

So at its core, this is a client-recommendation award with an editorial check on top. It isn't a revenue ranking, and it isn't a reader poll.

What the award proves (and what it doesn't)

It proves a set of real clients would recommend the company when a third party asked them directly, and that the company got through a background check.

It doesn't prove much about your situation. Two things to know:

• The company picks the references. Every agency on earth can find three happy clients. The survey still counts for something, since Inc. asks the questions and does the scoring. It just can't tell you about the clients who weren't asked.
• Past honorees can reapply without new references. That's in the methodology. A repeat badge doesn't always mean a fresh round of client surveys.

None of that is a knock on the award. It's just what any award can and can't tell you, and you should know it before a logo on a sales deck sways your decision.

The list is full of specialists

Here's what jumped out at me reading the category. A lot of the honorees serve one industry and nothing else:

• C-4 Analytics does digital marketing for auto dealerships
• Rankings.io does SEO for personal injury and other law firms
• Goodjuju Marketing works with property managers
• BKM Marketing Associates focuses on banking
• Lasso MD does dental, and only dental

That lines up with what I see in practices every week. A generalist agency has to learn your business on your dime. A specialist already knows what a new patient is worth, which procedures carry the practice, and why your call tracking numbers don't match your Google Business Profile.

If you're comparing agencies, "who else do you work with?" is one of the most revealing questions you can ask. I wrote more on that in how to evaluate your dental marketing agency.

How to vet any dental marketing agency's awards

Use this on every agency you're talking to, including us.

1. Who gave it, and how was it scored? Look up the methodology. Client surveys, revenue growth and paid listings are very different things. If you can't find a methodology, treat the badge as decoration.
2. Did the agency pay to be on it? Some "best of" lists are pay-to-play. Ask straight out.
3. Who picked the references? For any award built on client feedback, the answer is usually the agency.
4. Pick your own references. Ask for clients in your specialty and a market like yours, and ask for one who left. How an agency talks about a client who left tells you a lot.
5. Check who owns what. Domain, Google Business Profile, Google Ads account, analytics. An award doesn't change the contract. Here's the contract red-flag list I'd run.
6. Ask how they'll prove results. Not clicks or impressions. Booked patients and revenue, tied back to your practice management system. If an agency can't show that, the award is the best evidence you'll get, and that's not enough. More on tracking marketing back to revenue.

An award is a fine reason to take a meeting with an agency. Those six answers are what should decide whether you sign.

Why this one means something to me

Lasso MD started in San Diego in 2018. We do dental marketing only: websites built to turn visitors into booked appointments, Google and Meta ads, and PatientLoop, our software that connects to a practice's management system. PatientLoop checks which leads actually booked and how much revenue they brought in.

That last part is the whole point for me. Dentists should be able to see what every marketing dollar returned, not take an agency's word for it.

Our CEO, Eric Bunnell, said it best in our announcement: "This one's for our clients and our team." Inc.'s survey boils down to one question for our clients: would you recommend them? Enough of them said yes. That's the part I'm proud of.

To the practices who vouched for us: thank you.

What to do with this

If you're shopping for an agency right now, do one thing this week. Ask every agency on your list for two references you pick from their client list: same specialty, similar market. Then call them.

You'll learn more from those two calls than from any award, ours included.

Sources

• Meet the 2026 Power Partners in Advertising, Marketing & Sales — Inc. (the 2026 category list, company profiles and specialties)
• Power Partner Awards Methodology: How We Selected These Companies — Inc. (application, client surveys, judging and vetting steps)
• Lasso MD Named a 2026 Inc. Power Partner — Lasso MD (announcement and CEO quote)