Locata

What do they actually do

Locata builds referral-operations software for primary care teams, with an initial focus on community health centers. After a PCP orders a referral, Locata automates the follow-on administrative work: it extracts referral data from the EHR, pre-fills and submits prior-authorization or referral requests to the correct payer portals, monitors status changes, sends patient follow-ups via SMS or voice, transmits required documents to specialists, and collects consult notes to close the loop. Staff see statuses in a dashboard and only step in on exceptions (Locata site, YC launch).

The product connects to a clinic’s EHR and payer portals during setup and pushes updates back into existing workflows. The company states it operates on HIPAA-compliant infrastructure and supports consented patient messaging via SMS and voice (Privacy Policy, SMS Terms). Locata reports an early customer saved over 100 administrative hours in the first month of use (YC launch).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Referral coordinators / referral specialists at community health centers: Spend hours daily in payer portals doing prior-auths and tracking statuses across systems, leading to backlogs and missed referrals. Need automation for portal work and status tracking.
• Clinic operations / practice managers (FQHCs, regional health centers): Face high admin labor costs and volatile workloads from referral volume. Need predictable operations, fewer exceptions, and clear metrics to manage staffing and throughput.
• Primary care clinicians (PCPs): Consult notes often return late or not at all, creating care gaps and extra follow-up work. Need reliable retrieval of specialist notes into the chart to close the loop.
• Care coordinators / patient outreach staff: Manual calls/texts to confirm bookings and chase no-shows are time-consuming with low response rates. Need automated outreach that escalates only when human help is required.
• Health center IT / compliance officers: Must vet vendors for HIPAA compliance and manage EHR/payer integrations without adding security risk. Need clear controls, auditability, and low-lift onboarding.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Founder-led pilots with white-glove onboarding at nearby community health centers/FQHCs; short paid pilots prove time saved and closed-loop rates, using the early 100+ hours saved example as social proof and asking each pilot site for intros (YC launch).
• First 50: Standardize a 2–4 week implementation playbook with one sales closer and one implementation engineer; run targeted outbound to regional health centers and primary-care associations, publish a one-page case study/ROI calculator, and work with health IT consultants/EHR integrators on referral-fee or co-managed pilots.
• First 100: Productize onboarding for lower-complexity sites (templated mappings, credential flows) while signing distribution with EHR partners, FQHC networks, and Medicaid MCOs for multi-site deployments; invest in HIPAA controls/audit logging to clear procurement and RFP hurdles (Privacy Policy).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Beachhead is HRSA-funded community health centers: ~1,400 grantees operating >16,000 service sites in the U.S. (HRSA). Broader primary care includes roughly 150k–213k physician office locations in public estimates (PubMed analysis, market summary).

Bottom-up calculation:

Using Locata’s reported 100 hours/month saved for an early customer and a BLS median admin wage of ~$21.91/hour, that’s ~1,200 hours/year × $21.91 ≈ $26.3k/year of labor value per site (YC launch, BLS). Applied to 1,400 health center orgs ≈ $36.8M/year; applied to ~16,000 sites ≈ $421M/year; applied to ~150k–213k primary-care offices ≈ $4.0B–$5.6B/year.

Assumptions:

• The 100 hours/month is an early single-customer result; actual savings will vary by volume, payer mix, and workflow automation coverage.
• Dollar figures reflect labor-cost value at BLS median wages; they are not pricing or revenue capture for Locata.
• Initial focus is HRSA health centers due to similar workflows and centralized operations; broader primary care would be addressed over time.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Kyruus: Enterprise provider data and care-access platform used by health systems for provider matching and scheduling. Overlaps on referral routing/tracking; less focused on automating payer-portal prior-auths or consult-note retrieval for primary care.
• ReferralMD: Referral and eConsult management software for clinics and health systems. Overlaps on end-to-end referral workflows and closing the loop; Locata emphasizes automated payer-portal submissions and continuous monitoring.
• Olive: Healthcare automation/AI for back-office processes including prior authorization. Broad enterprise scope; not purpose-built for full referral lifecycle with patient SMS/voice and consult-note closure.
• RubiconMD: eConsult network giving PCPs rapid specialist input to reduce unnecessary referrals. Clinical consult focus rather than automating payer portals, patient outreach, and document routing.
• CoverMyMeds (McKesson): Large prior-authorization automation service primarily for medications. Overlaps on PA automation but is medication-centric, not the full specialty referral lifecycle targeted by Locata.