Health IT teams run multiple concurrent major go-lives (EHR-to-EHR, paper-to-EHR) with no specialized tooling, leading to chaos when 3+ major projects overlap with daily maintenance and troubleshooting.
A SaaS platform with go-live playbook templates, real-time readiness dashboards, cutover checklists, cross-project resource allocation, and issue triage workflows specifically designed for EHR implementation patterns.
subscription per health system, tiered by number of concurrent go-lives and facilities
The Reddit post says it perfectly — 'literally nothing but major go-lives.' Health IT teams are managing $50-500M+ projects using Smartsheet and Excel. Go-live command centers literally run on whiteboards and walkie-talkies. A failed go-live can harm patient safety and cost millions. The pain is visceral, high-stakes, and currently addressed with duct tape.
TAM is meaningful but bounded. ~200-400 major EHR go-lives/year in the US, plus hundreds of smaller implementations. Each health system might pay $50K-$200K/year for a platform like this (tiny vs. their $100M+ project costs). That puts realistic SAM at $50-100M/year. Not a billion-dollar market, but a very healthy niche SaaS business. International expansion and adjacent use cases (medical device rollouts, lab system migrations) could extend it.
Health systems routinely spend $1-10M on go-live consulting support alone. A $50-200K/year SaaS tool that reduces reliance on expensive consultants is a rounding error on their implementation budget. Healthcare buyers are used to paying enterprise prices. The ROI case writes itself: even saving 10% on go-live consulting costs pays for the platform 10x over.
A solo dev can build the core MVP (template-based checklists, readiness dashboards, issue tracking, resource calendar) in 6-8 weeks. It's fundamentally a specialized project management tool — no novel technology required. However, healthcare requires HIPAA compliance (even if no PHI is stored, buyers will demand a BAA), SOC 2 certification, and SSO/SAML integration, which add complexity and cost. The templates and domain knowledge (what goes INTO the playbooks) are the real IP and require deep healthcare IT expertise to build correctly.
This is the strongest signal. There is literally NO purpose-built SaaS product in this space. Every health system cobbles together Smartsheet + Excel + SharePoint + email. Consulting firms have internal tools but don't sell them. Epic's tools only cover Epic. The intersection of 'standalone SaaS product' + 'EHR-specific' + 'go-live focused' has zero occupants. This whitespace is remarkable for a market of this size.
Mixed. A single go-live is a 12-24 month project — after stabilization, the acute need drops. However, large health systems have rolling go-lives across facilities for years (a 20-hospital system might have 3-4 years of sequential go-lives). Post-go-live optimization, upgrade cycles, and ongoing operational workflows can extend usage. The risk is churn after the implementation program ends. Tiering by concurrent go-lives and adding post-go-live optimization modules helps.
- +Massive, obvious whitespace — zero purpose-built SaaS competitors in a multi-billion dollar implementation services market
- +Extremely high pain intensity with life-safety stakes — failed go-lives can literally harm patients
- +Strong willingness to pay — platform cost is <1% of total implementation budget, easy ROI case
- +Built-in distribution channel — consulting firms (Nordic, Pivot Point, Impact Advisors) could be partners/resellers since they need better tooling too
- +Founder domain expertise is the moat — deep health IT knowledge required to build credible playbook templates
- !Brutally long enterprise healthcare sales cycles (6-18 months), which means slow time-to-revenue and high cash burn before PMF
- !Epic could build better native implementation tooling and kill the market for Epic-focused go-lives (vendor encroachment risk)
- !Consulting firms may resist if they view this as commoditizing their proprietary methodology IP
- !The current Epic migration wave is a time-limited window — market could contract after 2028-2030 as consolidation completes
- !HIPAA/SOC 2/security review requirements add significant time and cost to enterprise deals, even if the platform stores no PHI
General-purpose collaborative work management platform heavily adopted in healthcare IT for EHR implementation tracking, Gantt charts, dashboards, and resource management. Many consulting firms
Enterprise IT service management and project portfolio management platform used by large health systems for IT operations and project governance.
Epic's proprietary implementation methodology framework and internal project tracking tools provided to health systems during Epic implementations.
Top healthcare IT consulting firms with proprietary internal go-live frameworks, readiness tools, and command center playbooks used during their engagements.
Agile project management and issue tracking platform sometimes adopted by health IT teams, particularly those with technical project managers.
Start with 'Command Center in a Box' — a real-time go-live command center dashboard with pre-built cutover checklists, issue triage workflows (log issue → categorize → assign → escalate → resolve), and a readiness tracker. Ship with 2-3 opinionated go-live playbook templates (Epic go-live, EHR migration, ambulatory rollout). Skip resource scheduling and cross-project portfolio management for V1. Target a single health system mid-go-live and offer it free to prove value during their most painful moment.
Free pilot with 1-2 health systems during active go-lives → $2-5K/month starter tier (single facility, single go-live) → $10-25K/month professional tier (multi-facility, concurrent go-lives, custom playbooks) → $50-100K+/year enterprise tier (portfolio management, consulting firm licenses, API integrations, analytics). Long-term: marketplace for community-contributed playbook templates, consulting firm partnership program, and professional services for template customization.
6-12 months to first paying customer. Expect 2-3 months to build MVP, 1-2 months to get a free pilot running at a health system mid-go-live, then 3-6 months to convert pilot to paid contract through their procurement process. First meaningful ARR ($100K+) likely 12-18 months out. This is an enterprise sale, not PLG — plan finances accordingly.
- “3 major go lives within 18 month span plus other major projects running concur at the same time”
- “Plus daily troubleshooting and maintenance”
- “back to back to back major go lives”