Inside Thoughtful AI’s Data-Driven Pivot: Finding 1000% ROI in Healthcare Automation

Product-market fit often reveals itself in unexpected places. In a recent Category Visionaries episode, Alex Zekoff shared how rigorous data analysis transformed Thoughtful AI from a broad automation company into a focused healthcare solution provider.

The journey began with a simple observation. “If you fundamentally market size how many people on annual basis operate software, it’s $7 trillion of labor, move data around,” Alex explains. This insight led them to build automation solutions across multiple sectors.

By 2022, their portfolio had grown significantly: “We were selling legal robots, real estate robots, manufacturing robots, and weren’t developing an expertise of what is really the KPIs that these robots are moving, that our buyers care about,” Alex recalls. Success masked a deeper truth about their market fit.

The breakthrough came from analyzing their deployment data. “Last year, we looked at all of our robots. We had about 85 live robots in production systems across our 35 customers,” Alex shares. Instead of just tracking growth metrics, they dug deeper into performance across sectors.

The numbers told a compelling story: “We looked under the hood and all of our mid market healthcare companies, the robots were 1000% ROIs. They were spending 200% net revenue retention.” More importantly, they discovered they could help “mid market healthcare providers get paid all of their money faster.”

The impact was transformative. “They submit claims to payers, insurance companies, Medicaid and they are only collecting 65. That’s common,” Alex explains. Through their automation, “We help those companies collect 95%. We help increase their day sales outstanding from 50 days to five days.”

This focus on concrete outcomes reshaped their entire approach. Rather than selling technology, they began selling business results: “More cash in those healthcare providers banks means better patient experiences. They can invest more in doctors to spend more time with the patients.”

The pivot also influenced their service model. “Every account that launches with us has an eight person team assigned to them for the first year,” Alex notes. This high-touch approach ensures they can deliver the exceptional ROI that their data promised.

Their commitment to outcomes extends to their pricing model: “We actually have clauses state that you don’t have to pay us until we achieve those outcomes.” This alignment of incentives has helped them maintain those high ROI figures even as they scale.

Looking ahead, they’re maintaining their data-driven approach while expanding their impact. “Typically, a customer will pay us back our fees in four to five and a half months, and then they’re in the profit zone,” Alex shares. Their goal? “We believe getting to 100 million ARR, 100 customers, we can achieve that by 2026.”

For founders navigating their own path to product-market fit, Thoughtful AI’s story offers crucial lessons. First, collect detailed performance data across all customer segments. Second, be willing to focus exclusively on your highest-performing sector, even if it means walking away from other customers. Finally, use concrete metrics to reshape your entire business model around delivering exceptional outcomes.

As Alex puts it: “We believe we are fundamentally attacking the US healthcare cost problem from its root cause.” Sometimes the best opportunities aren’t found in solving new problems, but in solving existing ones exceptionally well.