Trapeze

What do they actually do

Trapeze runs an AI front-office coworker for eye-care clinics (ophthalmology and optometry). It answers patient phone calls and texts 24/7, identifies the patient and their need, checks insurance eligibility when needed, books into live schedules, sends reminders/recalls, and resolves common questions. It plugs into a clinic’s existing phone system and EHR/PMS and provides an admin dashboard for rules, metrics, and human escalations when cases are complex or ambiguous Trapeze site, Trapeze ophthalmology site.

Clinics keep their current tools; Trapeze ingests historical conversations, EHR data, and each practice’s scheduling rules to build a clinic-specific rules engine. The company markets “zero‑lift” telephony and EHR integrations and reports it can auto-resolve a large share of inbound communications; these performance claims are company‑reported, not third‑party audited Trapeze site.

Trapeze says it has onboarded 140+ doctors in the last three months, reached 1,000,000+ patients, and now supports “hundreds of healthcare providers nationwide.” These traction figures are company‑reported in YC and website materials YC profile, Trapeze site.

Who are their target customer(s)

• Independent optometry or ophthalmology practice owner: Losing bookings and revenue because calls after hours or during busy periods go unanswered; hiring and training reception staff is costly and slow.
• Multi‑location eye‑care group operations manager: Inconsistent scheduling rules and staffing across sites make it hard to scale access, enforce standards, and see where patients drop off.
• Front‑desk/reception staff at specialty clinics: Overloaded by repetitive calls and texts for simple bookings, eligibility checks, and reminders, leading to long hold times and burnout.
• Billing/insurance coordinator: Manual insurance eligibility checks slow scheduling and raise the risk of rejected claims or unexpected patient bills.
• Practice manager / IT lead: Phone, scheduling, and EHR systems don’t talk well to each other, causing double entry, errors, and compliance worries when trying to automate patient access.

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

• First 10: Founder-led outreach to local eye‑care practices with short, low‑risk pilots and hands‑on onboarding to prove faster call/text handling and incremental bookings; founders or senior engineers run the first integrations Trapeze site, YC profile.
• First 50: Turn early wins into a repeatable playbook and case studies; small sales team targets similar clinics and asks for referrals/testimonials, supported by geo‑targeted ads and local association outreach Trapeze site, YC profile.
• First 100: Layer channel partnerships (EHR/telephony resellers), offer multi‑site pricing to groups, and sell pilot bundles to buying groups or regional networks; begin selective patient‑facing booking pilots to prove demand capture alongside cost savings Trapeze site, YC profile.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

In the U.S., there are about 47,800 optometrists and roughly 18,000 ophthalmologists—tens of thousands of clinicians who rely on phone/text scheduling and front‑office workflows that can be automated BLS OOH, AAO.

Bottom-up calculation:

Approximate practice sites: ~28,969 optometry businesses plus ~5,890 ophthalmology practices ≈ ~34,900 locations; at $3,000–$6,000 per site per year for AI front‑office automation, U.S. eye‑care TAM is roughly $105M–$210M annually IBISWorld, PubMed practice consolidation study.

Assumptions:

• U.S.-only TAM focused on eye‑care (optometry + ophthalmology) practices.
• Pricing model is per location per year for front‑office automation (scheduling, messaging, eligibility).
• Assumes most practices have at least one site suitable for automation; multi‑site groups counted per location.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Luma Health: Patient‑engagement platform that automates scheduling, two‑way texting, reminders, and waitlists across many EHRs; overlaps on replacing phone work and filling schedules Luma scheduling.
• Zocdoc: Consumer marketplace and online scheduling that brings patient demand to practices; also offers an AI phone assistant, competing on access and bookings capture AI phone assistant.
• Klara: Secure messaging and workflow tool (two‑way SMS, call‑to‑text, intake, self‑scheduling) that reduces call volume and centralizes patient conversations Klara product.
• Phreesia: Digital intake, eligibility, and payments platform; competes on automating insurance eligibility, registration, and front‑office revenue workflows Eligibility.
• Nuance / Microsoft (Patient Engagement & Cloud IVR): Enterprise conversational IVR/virtual assistant used by large health systems for voice automation, triage, and appointment management; entrenched with incumbents Cloud IVR.