Novoflow

What do they actually do

Novoflow sells an AI receptionist for outpatient clinics. It answers inbound calls (and places outbound calls), verifies the caller, understands intent, and handles tasks like booking, rescheduling, and cancellations directly in the clinic’s EHR through Novoflow’s integration layer. The agent supports multiple languages and is positioned as a drop‑in replacement for manual front‑desk phone work (Novoflow site, YC profile).

Clinics point their phone number to Novoflow via SIP trunking for a fast go‑live (they advertise “one‑hour” setup) and monitor outcomes in a simple dashboard (e.g., call→appointment conversion, abandonment, provider utilization, no‑show rate). Pricing is success‑based (pay for completed automated tasks) with public plan names but no list prices (YC profile, Novoflow pricing).

Operationally, they’re early stage with a small set of paying practices and hands‑on onboarding. Public materials and press highlight early adopters in multi‑location specialties and a reported ~$3.1M raise to scale the product and go‑to‑market (YC, Business Insider).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Solo and small independent clinics without full‑time front‑desk coverage: They miss calls and burn staff time on ID checks and scheduling. They need a low‑friction phone takeover with minimal IT lift and predictable ROI (Novoflow, YC).
• Multi‑location specialty groups (e.g., dermatology, radiology, rheumatology): They face high call volumes and complex scheduling rules that are expensive to manage manually; consistency and fewer no‑shows across sites are key (YC, Business Insider).
• Clinics on legacy or fragmented EHRs (limited APIs): Custom integrations are slow and brittle; they need automation that writes into existing systems without EHR changes (Novoflow).
• Clinics serving large non‑English‑speaking populations: Language gaps lead to errors and no‑shows; they need reliable multilingual call handling (YC).
• Practice ops and revenue‑cycle teams running outbound workflows: Recall, refill, cancellation recovery, and collections are repetitive and get deprioritized; they want automation to execute these reliably (YC, Business Insider).

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

• First 10: Run local, paid pilots with solo and small clinics that are losing calls; point the clinic’s phone number at Novoflow for a one‑hour go‑live, charge on a success‑based model, and provide white‑glove onboarding with KPI tracking to prove ROI (Novoflow, YC).
• First 50: Convert early pilots into referrals and target outreach to multi‑location specialties; partner with SIP/telephony vendors and practice‑management consultants to reduce integration objections using the “universal EHR bridge” story (Business Insider, Novoflow).
• First 100: Hire regional reps for 3–10 clinic clusters and add channels via EHR integrators, billing firms, and telephony partners; standardize onboarding playbooks and use outbound automation features as upsells once live (Novoflow, YC, Business Insider).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

The U.S. upper bound is the set of outpatient physician offices—on the order of 400k+ establishments under NAICS 6211—and ~130k+ physician groups if selling at the organization level (Census/NAICS 6211, Definitive Healthcare).

Bottom-up calculation:

Starting from ~400k outpatient office locations, focus on higher‑propensity segments (small independents and multi‑site specialties using legacy EHRs). Even a conservative slice of these segments yields a six‑figure count of potential locations for phone‑routed AI reception plus EHR write‑back (AMA 2024).

Assumptions:

• Hospitals/inpatient units are out of scope; focus is outpatient physician offices.
• Adoption is constrained near‑term by integration/trust work (HIPAA, scheduling safety) and hands‑on onboarding.
• Group‑level contracts can roll out to multiple sites, so organization‑level wins may unlock many locations.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Hyro: Conversational AI for healthcare call centers that automates and deflects routine calls, supports scheduling and Rx workflows, and integrates via SIP and with EMRs like Epic—widely used by health systems (Hyro).
• Syllable (ActiumHealth division): Healthcare voice assistants that answer and route calls and automate common tasks (e.g., scheduling, refills) for practices and health systems; positioned as quick to deploy in existing telephony stacks (AVIA Marketplace overview).
• Notable: AI platform for healthcare operations automating patient access, contact center, RCM, and more through EHR‑integrated agents—overlaps with Novoflow’s broader “AI employees” vision (Notable, Contact Center use case).
• Keona Health: Healthcare CRM and patient access platform (CareDesk) for call centers, triage, and intelligent scheduling; focuses on workflow guidance and EHR‑integrated scheduling accuracy (Keona Health).
• Artera (formerly WELL Health): Patient communications platform with virtual agents (voice/text) across scheduling, intake, reminders, and referrals; used by 1,000+ organizations, integrates with major EHRs (Artera, rebrand background).