The Arcon Platform

Five dimensions. One score.
Every market.

Arcon builds a Local Market Index for every dental practice — an elastic, locally-calibrated intelligence system that scores what matters and shows you exactly where the money is.

Why Local Matters

Your market isn't a zip code.
It's the geography where your patients come from.

Most analytics use a fixed radius — 5 miles, 10 miles, or a zip code. Arcon builds an elastic market boundary that adapts to your specialty, local population density, and commute patterns. An implant center's true market boundary is 3× wider than a general practice in the same location.

Follow three real practice profiles through every dimension of Arcon's analysis.

Rural · Low density
De Novo Family Practice
Meridian, ID
Solo GP, 14 months old, growing from scratch in a small rural market.
Metro · Dense competition
Mature Multi-Provider
Houston, TX
4-provider group, 18 years established, in one of America's most competitive metros.
Suburban · Specialty
Implant Center
Plano, TX
Board-certified implantologist, 6 years, premium positioning in affluent suburbs.
8.1 mi radius · 12 competitors · $3.4M TAM
Wide boundary in low-density market — fewer competitors, but limited addressable demand.

Same platform. Three practices.

Rural · Low density
M
Market Opportunity
41 / 100
X
Marketing Execution
28 / 100
U
Unit Economics
72 / 100
V
Vulnerability
35 / 100
P
Performance Proj.
38 / 100
Small market, underdeveloped execution — but surprisingly strong unit economics. The question is whether the practice can survive its own fragility long enough to grow.
M

Dimension 1

Market Opportunity

M-Score answers the strategic question: “Is this market worth being in, for a practice like yours?” Four weighted factors, calibrated to your specific practice profile — not a generic score that treats every dentist the same.

Four-Factor Weighted Model

40%
Relevant Opportunity
How much addressable TAM exists for your specialty and positioning — filtered by practice type, revenue mix, and positioning clusters.
25%
Capture Ease
Market fragmentation, competitive intensity, multi-location ratio. How hard is it to gain share?
20%
Growth Trajectory
5-year demographic projections × procedure adoption trends × revenue type modifiers. Is this market expanding or contracting for you?
15%
TAM Size
Absolute market scale. Larger markets offer more room to grow even at the same opportunity ratio.

What M-Score reveals that others can't

  • Keyword Codex: 113 symptoms, 99 conditions, 83 procedures tracked for revealed demand — what people actually search for.
  • Ideal Practice Profile: For every market, the optimal specialty, revenue mix, and positioning — with repositioning potential quantified in points.
  • Practice-specific scoring: The same market scores differently for a GP vs. implant center. The competitive landscape and demand pool are fundamentally different.
M
Market Opportunity
De Novo Family PracticeMeridian, ID
41
41 / 100
Modest
Factor Decomposition
Relevant Opportunity 40%
avg: 5838
Limited procedure demand — population base is thin
Capture Ease 25%
avg: 5562
Low competition — high share potential with few rivals
Growth Trajectory 20%
avg: 5535
Flat demographic trajectory in rural corridor
TAM Size 15%
avg: 6028
Small absolute market — ceiling visible early
Elastic market boundary: 8.1mi radius · low density · general practice
X

Dimension 2

Marketing Execution

X-Score answers: “Of the patients available to win, how many are you actually getting?” While 70–85% of revenue comes from existing patients, X-Score isolates the 15–30% that flows through acquisition — the controllable growth lever.

Five Acquisition Channels

~51%
Earned
Referrals and branded search. Lowest CAC, but relationship-bound.
~17%
Organic
SEO, reviews, AI discovery. Four signals: unbranded search (40%), reviews (35%), social (10%), AI-Readiness (15%).
~18%
Distribution
Insurance panels, walk-ins from payer directories. Structural, capacity-bound.
~6%
Paid
Google Ads, Meta. Highest CAC but immediately controllable.
~8%
Other
Offline and unmeasured. Allocated proportionally — we don't pretend to measure billboards.

Beyond the score

  • Retention Health (0–100): Branded search trend + review velocity + sentiment. Are you keeping the patients you win?
  • Conversion Readiness (A–D): 7-element audit — scheduling, chat, mobile, CTAs, speed, click-to-call, form placement.
  • AI-Readiness: Visibility to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini — the next discovery channel.
  • Share Trajectory: Gaining, stable, or losing? Acquisition share vs. market position reveals whether you're winning or ceding ground.
X
Marketing Execution
De Novo Family PracticeMeridian, ID
28
28 / 100
Underdeveloped
Acquisition Channels
$89K est. first-year new patient revenue
EarnedReferrals & branded search
62%$55K
OrganicSEO, reviews, AI discovery
8%$7K
DistributionInsurance panels
22%$20K
PaidGoogle Ads
5%$4K
OtherOffline & unmeasured
3%$3K
Retention Health
44→ Below avg
No review strategy · 2.8★ avg · Branded search minimal
Conversion Grade
D35/100
No online scheduling · No chat · Mobile site slow
AI Readiness
12→ Critical
No schema · 1 directory · No CDA
Digital Presence Gap
Virtually no organic visibility. 92% of acquisition relies on referrals and insurance panels — both capacity-limited channels. Digital investment would compound from near-zero baseline.
Stalling — acquisition share flat at 2.1% despite low competition
U

Dimension 3

Unit Economics

U-Score answers: “Are you acquiring patients profitably?” A practice can have excellent acquisition and terrible economics — growing revenue while destroying margin. U-Score exposes the difference.

Why margin-based LTV:CAC changes everything

The industry uses revenue-based ratios (10:1 to 40:1). At that scale everyone looks healthy. Arcon uses margin-based ratios (3:1 to 16:1), which expose real economics. A practice at 3.5:1 is viable but tight. At 2.4:1 it's consuming 58% of gross profit on acquisition. Revenue-based ratios can't tell the difference.

What U-Score measures

Margin-Based LTV
First-Year Collections × Gross Margin × Retention Multiplier. Not inflated revenue numbers.
Fully-Loaded CAC
Direct spend + hidden infrastructure (MarTech, staff, content, community). Industry "marketing spend" excludes $36K–$97K/year in real costs.
Spend Sustainability Ratio
Total spend ÷ Minimum Viable Spend. Below 1.0 = shrinking. 1.0–1.3 = maintenance. 1.3–2.0 = growth. Above 2.0 = aggressive.
⚠ Measurement Integrity Warning
When U-Score is high but Spend Sustainability is below 1.0, we flag it: “High efficiency is a product of underinvestment, not superior economics.” The practice looks efficient because it's barely spending — but it's structurally shrinking.
U
Unit Economics
De Novo Family PracticeMeridian, ID
72
72 / 100
Strong
Margin-Based LTV:CAC
6.80 : 1
Peer median
4.1 : 1
48th percentile
1:13:16:110:116:1
LTV Waterfall
First-Year Collections$680
New practice avg
× Gross Margin51%
Margin basis for economics
= First-Year Value$347
Margin-based, not revenue
× Retention Multiplier3.8×
84% retention, 12% discount
= Patient LTV$1K
Margin-based lifetime value
Fully-Loaded CAC
Direct marketing spend$42
+ Hidden infrastructure$18
MarTech, staff time, content
= Total acquisition cost$60
÷ New patients (est.)310
= CAC per patient$194
Growth Zone
Spend rate 8.2% exceeds 6.5% maintenance threshold
DeclineMaint.GrowthAggr.
Why margin-based? Why margin-based? Revenue-based ratios (10:1–40:1) mask real economics. Margin-based (3:1–16:1) exposes actual profitability.
V

Dimension 4

Vulnerability

V-Score answers: “How fragile is this practice's current performance?” Excellent M, X, and U scores mean nothing if the whole thing is a house of cards. One provider departure, one payer loss, one algorithm change from collapse. V-Score quantifies hidden fragility.

Five Risk Dimensions

25%
Concentration Risk
Provider, payer, and referral concentration. What happens if one thing goes away?
20%
Competitive Vulnerability
Brand moat (search share vs. capacity), reputation moat (reviews × rating), positioning differentiation.
20%
Patient Churn Risk
Retention Health + Acquisition Sustainability. Keeping patients and investing enough to replace the ones who leave?
15%
Channel Risk
Paid dependency vs. practice-type benchmark, earned channel strength, channel diversity.
15%
Saturation Risk
Share ceiling (50% practical cap), specialty-specific saturation, positioning cluster saturation.

Pattern detection

  • House of Cards: High X + High U + Low V = strong execution on fragile foundations. De-risk before you grow.
  • Silent Decline: Retention looks healthy but spend is below maintenance. Healthy now — structurally shrinking in 12–24 months.
  • Continuous severity: No binary thresholds. 65% concentration gets different stress than 80%. Every risk proportionally modeled.
V
Vulnerability
De Novo Family PracticeMeridian, ID
35
35 / 100
Elevated Risk
ConcentrationCompetitive VulnerabilityPatient ChurnChannel RiskSaturation Risk
Your practice
LMI median
Risk Dimensions
Concentration25%
avg: 5518
Competitive Vulnerability20%
avg: 5272
Patient Churn20%
avg: 5822
Channel Risk15%
avg: 6231
Saturation Risk15%
avg: 6485
3 Diagnostic Flags
Key Person Risk
Solo provider generates 100% of production — any disruption halts all revenue.
Patient Churn Exposure
Retention health at 44 with no review strategy. Patient base eroding faster than acquisition replaces.
Channel Fragility
84% of patients from 2 channels (referrals + insurance). Neither is scalable or controllable.
Floor stress impact: -$480K downside exposure (-38% vs Present State)
P

Dimension 5

60-Month Projection

P-Score projects 60-month Marketing Contribution — revenue × gross margin − acquisition spend. The economic output most directly addressable by the entire MXUVP pipeline. Ranked as a percentile against national peers.

Three projection lines

Present State
Current trajectory via stock-and-flow model: patient base decays by churn monthly, new revenue replenishes it. Realistic growth, not compounding fantasy.
V-Score Floor
What happens if vulnerabilities materialize. Five stress dimensions applied continuously — provider departure, payer loss, referral collapse, churn acceleration, paid fragility. Your downside in dollars.
Optimal State
Achievable improvement with focused execution. Phased: Build (1–12) → Cultivate (12–24) → Transition (24–36) → Harvest (36–60). Realistic investment lag modeling.

HIDA Framework

Every practice gets a strategic classification: Hold (protect), Invest (grow the constraint), Divest (capital better elsewhere).

Why Marketing Contribution, not revenue?
A $1M practice spending $400K on acquisition has different value than one spending $80K. Revenue can't distinguish them. Marketing Contribution isolates the economic engine Arcon's pipeline directly influences.
P
60-Month Projection
De Novo Family PracticeMeridian, ID
38
38 / 100
Underperforming
INVEST
BuildCultivateTransitionHarvest$2K$44K$85KOptimalPresentFloor
Present State
$0.8M
60-mo cumulative MC
Floor (if risks hit)
$0.3M
-61% downside
Optimal
$1.0M
+17% upside
Recommendation: INVEST — Binding constraint
Solo-provider fragility caps growth potential. Retention and digital presence are the binding constraints — fix these before scaling.
Marketing Contribution = (Revenue × Gross Margin) − Acquisition Spend · Stock-and-flow model with monthly decay + replenishment

What Powers Every Score

Real data. Not surveys. Not self-reported metrics.

Every score is built on observable, market-specific data — continuously updated, locally calibrated, and cross-validated across sources.

Select a data source to see what it revealed

M
Market Opportunity
X
Marketing Execution
U
Unit Economics
V
Vulnerability
P
Performance Proj.

Feeds Market Opportunity & Marketing Execution

What You Get

See it. Decide. Act.

Intelligence to understand your position. Frameworks to make decisions. Pathways to take action.

See exactly where you stand — in your market, against your peers.

Market ReportPlano, TX
Elastic Boundary
12.6 mi
specialty-adjusted radius
38
competitors
$8.2M
TAM
White Space Opportunity
83 implant procedures searched — only 9 competitors ranking
Uncontested demand76%

You just saw what Arcon reveals

38
INVEST
De Novo Family Practice
Meridian, ID
Hidden potential — strong unit economics buried under fragility
61
INVEST
Mature Multi-Provider
Houston, TX
Looks great on the surface — but payer risk and AI gaps underneath
81
INVEST
Implant Center
Plano, TX
A hidden gem national data would miss entirely

Now see yours. If it doesn't change how you see your market, you don't pay.

5
dimensions scored
10,000+
data points
60
month projection

We'll build a complete Local Market Index for one practice — scored and benchmarked against your actual competitive context. If it doesn't deliver value you can see, it's on us.

Solo practice ownersDental agenciesDSO & PE portfolios

No contracts. No commitment. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.