Review Wave
Six years ago, Matt Prados was running a digital marketing agency and made a critical observation while analyzing client performance. "I found who had the most reviews got the most new patients, because we're using the same website and same ads, all this kind of stuff," he explains. The insight was clear: reviews were a primary driver of patient acquisition for medical practices. This realization sparked the idea for Review Wave, initially as a side hustle to teach doctors how to get reviews.
The early approach was purely manual—just coaching doctors on review collection. When that didn't work, Matt pivoted to technology. The real breakthrough came when he realized he could integrate directly with the electronic health records (EHR) systems that doctors already used. "Integrating into their stack, it was magic. We just automatically started asking the reviews, the reviews came in, they got more new patients. And that was the kind of the aha moment where we're onto something," Matt recalls. The product evolved from a simple review collection tool to a complete patient engagement engine, adding online scheduling, appointment reminders, and automated campaigns.
Matt started with a simple pricing model: $99/month with a 30-day free trial, on a month-to-month contract with no annual prepay requirements. His first customers came through his existing network of digital marketing agency clients, who could clearly see the correlation between reviews and new patient acquisition. The product's integration with their existing EHR systems meant minimal friction to implementation.
The bootstrapped approach worked remarkably well. Matt raised only $150K from an angel investor early on—money he never actually spent, but which gave the company credibility for hiring. "We've never had a burn rate. I couldn't sleep at night having a burn rate," he says. The key to sustainable growth was maintaining profitability from the start while doubling year-over-year for five years. As they moved upmarket, pricing increased from $99 to $499 per month with additional $300 add-ons, reaching an average customer lifetime value of approximately $35,000. Matt credits their retention (0.76% monthly churn) to their focus on customer success and patient engagement outcomes.
Review Wave just broke $1M in monthly recurring revenue ($12M annualized) with 70+ employees while maintaining an 18% profit margin ($180K/month to the bottom line). Matt took a measured approach to venture capital, meeting with ~40 different firms and receiving 3 term sheets. He was considering a $150M valuation raise (20% primary + 50% secondary to take $15M off the table for acquisitions in other verticals), though he pulled back due to concerns about fund fit rather than economics. His philosophy: "I don't need the money right now" and he wanted partners who brought more than capital. He's taking distributions monthly while continuing to reinvest heavily in the business, and has diversified personal wealth into real estate and other investments while keeping Review Wave as his core wealth engine.
- •Matt identified a measurable, quantifiable problem (reviews directly correlate with patient acquisition) before building product, which allowed him to sell the solution based on clear ROI rather than feature lists.
- •By integrating directly into existing EHR systems that doctors already relied on daily, Review Wave eliminated implementation friction and made the value proposition immediate and undeniable.
- •The bootstrapped, profitable-from-day-one approach created alignment between customer success and company survival, resulting in genuinely low churn (0.76% monthly) and sustainable word-of-mouth growth.
- •Starting with a low-friction entry price ($99/month, 30-day free trial, month-to-month terms) in an existing network (digital marketing agency clients) allowed Review Wave to prove value at scale before raising capital or moving upmarket.
- 1.Identify a metric your target customer already measures and cares about deeply, then demonstrate a direct causal link between your solution and that metric (as Matt did with reviews → new patients).
- 2.Map your target customer's existing software stack and build an integration into their most-used tool rather than asking them to adopt a new standalone system.
- 3.Launch with a low entry price, short contract terms, and free trial period to minimize customer acquisition risk and allow word-of-mouth to drive growth before raising capital.
- 4.Focus relentlessly on measurable customer outcomes (patient acquisition, retention, revenue impact) and tie your success metrics to those outcomes to drive organic referrals within the vertical.
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