# Newton

Aiolum story: https://aiolum.com/story/newton/ · added 2026-11-07 · updated 2026-11-07

**In short.** Newton (AI phone system and front-desk agent for dental practices, USA): Used by hundreds of dental practices, November 2026. Evidence grade E: no revenue figure was checked. Team: 2 founders at the January 2024 launch; a team of 12 on the company's About page in November 2026 (the Y Combinator page lists 4). Launched 30 January 2024; still running.

AI phone system and front-desk agent for dental practices · USA · AI-native · started small, grew after funding · still running · group: Clinic and practice admin

- Outcome: Used by hundreds of dental practices, November 2026 (evidence grade of the headline number: E; no revenue figure)
- Launch: 30 January 2024; months from launch to the outcome: 33
- Team: 2 founders at the January 2024 launch; a team of 12 on the company's About page in November 2026 (the Y Combinator page lists 4)
- Outside funding: Y Combinator (Winter 2024); US$3.8M seed round reported in October 2025
- Main factor: Niche
- Meters, 1 to 4: evidence strength 1, copyable pattern 1, capital needed 2
- Tags: AI-native, Small team, Funded, Running, B2B, Health care administration

Links:

- Visit joinnewton.com: https://joinnewton.com/

**The product.** A phone system for dental offices with an AI agent, Sophia, built in. Sophia answers calls and text messages, books and reschedules appointments directly in the practice management software, refills cancelled slots from a waitlist, follows up with new leads and overdue balances, and passes emergencies and clinical questions to staff. Other modules verify insurance overnight and trace new patients back to the ad or referral that brought them. The site publishes no prices; the terms say fees are set in an order form.

**Why it worked.** A dental front desk handles phone calls, patients at the counter, insurance checks and reminders at the same time, often with five or six separate tools. Missed calls and unfilled cancellations are lost appointments. Newton replaces the office phone system itself, so that every call, by staff or by the AI, runs through one platform and is written to the patient record.

Evidence grades: A = disclosed by a public company, a filing or a payment processor, or verified by one; B = two or more independent reports agree, or a journalist confirmed it; C = a founder claim that no one else verified; D = reported, not verified: one founder claim or a third-party estimate with no second source; E = no revenue figure found, so the headline is a non-money fact and the other facts carry their own grades; calc = computed on this page from graded facts.

## Summary

Newton sells an AI phone platform to dental practices and DSOs (dental service organizations, companies that own or manage many dental offices). It is a VoIP system (voice over internet protocol, a phone line that runs over the internet instead of a classic phone network) with an AI agent called Sophia, who answers calls and texts and books directly into the practice's PMS (practice management system, the software that holds patient records and the appointment book).

Rohit Chaparala and Sam Detjen launched the company as Hemingway, an "AI patient scheduler", in Y Combinator's Winter 2024 batch. Their launch post of 30 January 2024 said they were "a team of two" and that the software "books a patient a day on average for customers". By January 2025 the product was renamed Newton and had grown into a full phone system; Unite.AI reported a US$3.8 million seed round on 22 October 2025.

No revenue figure was found, so this story has evidence grade E. The headline is the company's own claim on its testimonials page in November 2026: "hundreds of dental practices using Newton". The company's About page says it is now "a team of 12".

## Pricing

Newton prices in November 2026: none published (grade C)

| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newton platform (Phones, Inbound, Engage, Insurance, Growth) | quote only | quote only | subscription set in an order form after a demo |

The site has no pricing page. Every page leads to "Book a demo". The terms of service say the customer pays "the subscription fees set forth in your Order", and the page for groups of 5 to 20 locations says the product is "sized and priced for your stage".

## How much revenue does Newton make? The numbers, graded

A two-founder Y Combinator company that grew to 12 people and sells an AI phone system to dentists; traction is the company's own count of practices, and no revenue figure was found

| Fact | Value | Grade | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practices using Newton, November 2026 | "hundreds of dental practices" | C | Testimonials page, read 7 November 2026: "Join hundreds of dental practices using Newton". Not a count; the logo wall names 20 practices and dental groups. | [9] |
| Revenue of Newton | not published | C | No payment-processor profile, interview or filing with a revenue figure was found. See "What is not verified". | [1, 5, 6] |
| Bookings per customer, 2024 | "a patient a day on average for customers" | C | The founders' launch posts of 30 January and 22 March 2024, when the product was called Hemingway. No sample size was given. | [2, 3] |
| Published case study | 170 appointments booked by Sophia and US$42.4K in production in six months, at one dental group | C | Testimonials page: a six-month study at Restorative Dental Group of Cambridge, which also reports 25% fewer calls for the front desk. These are the customer's results, not Newton's revenue. | [9] |
| Price | not published; sold after a demo | C | Terms of service, section 6.1: fees are set in the customer's order. | [10, 11] |
| Channels | phone calls and text messages, a website chat and a booking widget | C | January 2025 launch post, home page and product pages. Sophia also places outbound calls and texts for leads, waitlists and overdue balances. | [4, 6, 12] |
| Integrations | Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Curve, Denticon, Fuse and others | C | Inbound product page: "Works with your PMS". The home page shows a two-way sync with Open Dental. | [7, 6] |
| Team | 2 founders in January 2024; 4 on the Y Combinator page; 12 on the About page | C | Launch post: "We are a team of two". The Y Combinator page, read 7 November 2026, lists a team size of 4 and two open jobs. The About page says "Newton, now a team of 12". | [2, 1, 8] |
| Funding | US$3.8M seed round, reported 22 October 2025 | C | Unite.AI names Y Combinator, Twenty Two Ventures, The Transpose Platform and Phosphor Capital, plus angel investors. | [5] |
| Earlier name | Hemingway (hemingwayai.co) | C | The 2024 launch posts use the name Hemingway. The privacy policy names the company "Hemingway AI, Inc. dba Newton". | [2, 14] |
| AI models used | not named | C | The privacy policy says Newton "applies machine-learning models to call audio, chat, or other data" and lists vendor categories (hosting, telephony, payment, analytics, support), but no products. | [14] |
| Time from the first launch post to the headline | 33 months | calc | Calculated: 30 January 2024 to 7 November 2026 is 33 full months. | [2, 9] |

How to read this table: a grade C value is a statement by the company on its own pages or its Y Combinator posts, or a press report of the company's announcement. A "calc" value was computed on this page. No value is grade A or B, and no row is Newton's own revenue.

## When did Newton launch, and how did it grow? Timeline

From a two-person AI scheduler to a dental phone platform with a seed round, in about two years. Each entry carries its grade.

- **2023** (grade C [1]): Rohit Chaparala and Sam Detjen found the company in San Francisco, according to its Y Combinator page.
- **30 January 2024** (grade C [2]): Launch post for Hemingway, an AI patient scheduler for dental practices, in the Winter 2024 batch. "We are a team of two." The AI books by phone, text and web chat.
- **22 March 2024** (grade C [3]): A second launch post repeats that the software books about one patient a day per customer and asks for introductions to dentists.
- **29 January 2025** (grade C [4]): Launch post under the new name Newton: an AI phone (VoIP) system for dentists and DSOs, with the AI agent Sophia.
- **22 October 2025** (grade C [5]): Unite.AI reports a US$3.8 million seed round with Y Combinator, Twenty Two Ventures, The Transpose Platform and Phosphor Capital.
- **November 2026** (grade C [6, 8, 9]): The site claims hundreds of practices, offers five modules and names 20 customers on a logo wall. The About page says the team is 12 people.

## Why did Newton work?

### Own the phone line

The About page says most dental voice AI is added on top of a practice's existing phone system, while Newton became the phone system. Every call, by staff or AI, runs through one log, so the company can measure bookings per call and per location.

### Write to the system of record

Sophia reads and writes the appointment book in the practice management software. A booked slot, a refilled cancellation or a verified insurance check appears where the front desk already works.

### Sell to groups

The product pages are written for groups of 5 to 20 locations and for large DSOs: one dashboard compares locations, and one platform replaces separate phone, reminder, review and payment tools at each office.

## How it was built

Only what the company's own pages say. No page names the model providers or the telephony vendor.

- A VoIP phone system for the whole office, with call routing, call tags and a shared call log for staff and AI.
- An AI agent, Sophia, for voice calls and text messages, with rules that the practice sets: what she handles and what always goes to a person.
- Two-way connections to practice management systems such as Dentrix, Eaglesoft and Open Dental.
- Encrypted calls, role-based access and a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA) under HIPAA, according to the Inbound page.
- The public website is built with Framer (the page source names it as the generator).

Sources: [4, 6, 7, 14]

## Who tried this before Newton, and why did they fail?

Three companies in our database of failed startups promised to take administrative work off health care staff or busy people, or to sell dental care in a new way, and failed. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.

The failed startups come from our database of dead startups, retold here in our own words; Its entries are AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so they carry no evidence grade.

### Olive AI (2012 to 2023; funding US$852M; cause: Unit Economics)

- Promise: An AI workforce of software bots for hospital administration: prior authorizations, claims and billing.
- Why it died: It sold automated AI, but delivery needed expensive custom work, and the costs per customer did not pay off.
- Record: 

### Zirtual (2011 to 2015; funding US$5.5M; cause: Ran Out of Cash)

- Promise: Human virtual assistants who handled email and scheduling for busy executives.
- Why it died: It hired many assistants on payroll during an expansion and ran out of cash.
- Record: 

### SmileDirectClub (2014 to 2023; funding US$900M; cause: Legal/Regulatory)

- Promise: Clear aligners by mail at about 60% below the price of braces.
- Why it died: Lawsuits from orthodontists and losses on each customer, then COVID hurt its retail shops.
- Record: 

## What changed

Zirtual sold scheduling work done by paid people, so each new customer needed more staff. Newton sells software that answers the calls itself, so the cost of one more call is much smaller. Olive AI promised general AI workers for hospitals; Newton started with one task, booking appointments, inside a few standard dental systems.

What did not change: health care rules. Calls with patients carry health data and fall under consent and privacy laws, and SmileDirectClub shows how regulators and professional groups can end a dental company.

## Can one person copy Newton now?

**Verdict: The pattern, yes. A phone system, hard.**

Start with one task that a busy front desk drops, connect to the software the profession already uses, and count the result in booked appointments. Newton then rebuilt the whole phone system and raised a seed round, which one person would find hard to copy.

1. Pick one office job with a clear end point: a booked, rescheduled or confirmed appointment.
2. Connect to the system of record (here the practice management software) before building anything else.
3. Ask early customers for introductions to other offices, as the founders did in their 2024 launch posts.
4. Decide how the AI says it is an AI and when it hands a caller to a person, and write it down for customers.

**What is still open.** The same front-desk phone agent for other appointment businesses that are not health care: car repair shops, salons, tutoring centers.

## What could go wrong for Newton?

- **What is not verified.** No revenue figure for Newton was found. We looked for a payment-processor profile, a founder interview with figures, and a filing. The money figures on the company's pages are customer outcomes (for example US$42.4K in production for one dental group in six months, and a 4-office pilot that the home page says added US$121.8K in new-patient revenue), and Unite.AI wrote that customers report "an average 7% increase in collections". The headline "hundreds of dental practices" is the company's own claim of November 2026. Team sizes disagree: the Y Combinator page lists 4 people, the About page says 12. A reader could look for a funding database entry, a press interview with customer counts, or a payment-processor profile.
- **No page says the AI tells callers it is an AI.** We found no page that says Sophia tells patients she is an AI. The Inbound page answers "What does Sophia sound like?" with "A calm, unhurried person who knows your practice." A customer quote on the home page says Newton booked patients back "without a patient ever feeling like they were talking to a machine." The terms of service leave consent and notices to the practice: "You bear sole responsibility for obtaining all legally required consents and notices before recording or communicating with any individual via the Service."
- **Health calls, consent and review requests.** Sophia also calls and texts patients about leads, waitlists and overdue balances, which falls under the US Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA); the terms name the TCPA and HIPAA and make the practice responsible. The Inbound page says emergencies and clinical questions go to a person and that Sophia "never invents an answer to a clinical or billing question"; its sample emergency call has Sophia transfer the caller and say "keep the tooth in milk if you can." The group pages sell "Review requests built in"; we found no wording that sends only satisfied patients to public reviews. One testimonial is signed with a first name only ("Dina DDS"), one by a job title at an unnamed "250+ location DSO", and the logo wall has no links to the named practices.
- **Competition and model providers.** Patientdesk and 10x, two other Y Combinator companies with stories on this site, also sell AI calls to dental practices. Newton does not name its model, speech or telephony providers; its privacy policy lists only vendor categories, so its dependence on them cannot be judged.

## Sources

1. Y Combinator company page: Newton — https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/newton (grade C). Read the company data in the page on 7 November 2026: founders, team size, batch, founding year, open jobs, launch posts and the linked news item.
2. Y Combinator Launches, 30 January 2024: Hemingway: AI Patient Scheduler for Dental Practices — https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/KHn-hemingway-ai-patient-scheduler-for-dental-practices (grade C). Read in full. The founders' first launch post: team of two, bookings per customer.
3. Y Combinator Launches, 22 March 2024: Hemingway: AI patient scheduler for dental practices — https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Khv-hemingway-ai-patient-scheduler-for-dental-practices (grade C). Read in full. Second launch post with the founders' backgrounds.
4. Y Combinator Launches, 29 January 2025: Newton: AI-powered Phone Platform for Dentists and DSOs — https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/MhU-newton-ai-powered-phone-platform-for-dentists-and-dsos (grade C). Read in full. Launch post under the new name, with the AI agent Sophia.
5. Unite.AI, 22 October 2025: Newton Raises $3.8 Million to Bring AI-Native Workflow Automation to Dental Practices (Antoine Tardif) — https://www.unite.ai/newton-raises-3-8-million-to-bring-ai-native-workflow-automation-to-dental-practices/ (grade C). Read in full. Press report of the seed round; quotes the CEO and a Y Combinator partner.
6. Newton home page, read 7 November 2026 — https://joinnewton.com/ (grade C). Read in full. Product, modules, customer quotes, logo wall and the Framer page source.
7. Newton Inbound product page — https://joinnewton.com/products/inbound (grade C). Read in full. What Sophia handles, the FAQ on her voice, clinical routing and the PMS list.
8. Newton About page — https://joinnewton.com/about (grade C). Read in full. Founding story and the team of 12.
9. Newton Testimonials page — https://joinnewton.com/testimonials (grade C). Read in full. The "hundreds of dental practices" claim and the case study.
10. Newton Terms of service — https://joinnewton.com/terms (grade C). Read the sections on compliance with laws, call recording and consent, and payment terms.
11. Newton page for emerging groups — https://joinnewton.com/solutions/emerging-groups (grade C). Read in full. Review requests and pricing wording for groups of 5 to 20 locations.
12. Newton Engage product page — https://joinnewton.com/products/engage (grade C). Read in full. Outbound calls and texts for leads, waitlists, balances and treatment.
13. Newton page for enterprise and DSOs — https://joinnewton.com/solutions/enterprise (grade C). Read in full. The list of tools Newton replaces, including review generation.
14. Newton Privacy policy — https://joinnewton.com/privacy-policy (grade C). Read the sections on AI processing, sub-processors and the legal entity name.
15. Database of failed startups, local export — /method/#dead (grade C). Local export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.

Contact: aiolum@livyden.com. Run Newton? Send corrections or a verified figure to aiolum@livyden.com (subject: Correction: Newton).