I've been MIA for ten months to make one thing simple for dentists: decisions. Dentplicity pulls signal from hundreds of sources in seconds and lets you act. I built the first version for my mom. Now it's available across the U.S. and Canada.
I stepped back because I wanted to build something useful, not narrate it. The basics I learned during the pandemic in 2020 with Codecademy (terminal, Git, Python) were enough to start small. I kept a notebook: dates, commands, mistakes, what finally clicked. From 2021 to 2024, I kept going. Early mornings, small projects, steady notes, learning web stack, databases, architecture. Modern tools helped with scaffolding. Real progress came from understanding each stumble.
I originally aimed to build a bank for dentists called Clin. I'm still on that path, the walkway is just wider now. Before any big product bet, I listened. Cold-emailed tens of thousands of dentists using Instantly.ai's campaign management, collected 777 meaningful surveys via TypeForm's conditional logic, held 100+ Zooms that I analyzed with Google Notebook LM.
The pattern was clear. Independent practices lacked a grounded view of their local market, their digital position, and the next practical move. So Dentplicity began as a decision tool: competitive intelligence plus AI action.
Dentplicity pulls thousands of signals per practice and compresses them into a handful of moves. We ingest proprietary feeds and open data: DEA registrations, state boards, NPI/provider directories, Census/BLS baselines, map and employer datasets, local news, web traffic, search visibility, reviews, listings, social sentiment. Every record is entity-resolved to the right clinic, geo-indexed to a real catchment, time-indexed so trendlines mean something. Tens of thousands of rows rolling in over time. You see explainable scorecards and a short list of actions that map to those inputs.
DentGPT sits next to the insights so you can act in minutes. Draft posts, emails, review replies, landing copy tuned to your practice and neighborhood context. A lot of DentGPT work happens nights and weekends, owners writing their own message on their own schedule.
Zero to one is done. One to ten is next. I bootstrapped the whole thing, which meant real trade-offs and honest CFO empathy. I'm keeping the scoreboard simple: time-to-first-action, percentage of suggested moves completed, whether those moves show up in reviews, referrals, direct bookings.
The real learning came from building outreach systems from scratch. Instantly.ai became my command center. Domain warming for 2-3 weeks before campaigns, testing everything from subject lines to CTAs. The 5-second rule matters more than anything: you get five seconds via subject line, preview, and first paragraph to make your case.
Python scrapers pulled publicly available data from Google Maps and practice websites. We pushed the terms of service boundaries, but we limited ourselves to information already in the open and put it to work for real relationship building. LinkedIn Sales Navigator helped find decision-makers before outreach.
TypeForm with conditional logic let practices tell their real story. Drawing on my urban planning survey background, I built branching logic that never showed irrelevant questions. Higher completion rates, better data quality.
Google Notebook LM turned 100+ interview transcripts into a living knowledge base. I listened to synthesized takeaways while walking my dog, which kept the actual voices of dental practice owners front and center. That became the edge: real understanding of real pain points.
Three things I'd tell other healthcare builders. First, understand the practice economics before writing code. Those 777 surveys weren't market research. They were financial modeling disguised as customer development. Second, healthcare data is messy but pattern-rich. Entity resolution and geo-indexing sound technical, but they solve real business problems. Clean data reveals clear opportunities. Third, bootstrap forces customer focus. Without external funding runway, every feature must drive immediate value. Constraints breed creativity and customer empathy.
-AM arvindmurthy at gmail