Business Model

Core Product: The Course

Med Desk AI Institute is a workforce development company. The core product is a dental office administration training program that takes students from zero to job-ready.

We train them in scheduling, insurance, billing, HIPAA, phone techniques, records management, patient communication, and dental terminology.

Revenue comes from WIOA reimbursement: $9,000 to $15,000 per student upon placement.

What Graduates Get

Every student who completes the course and gets placed at a dental office receives: - A certificate of completion - Job placement assistance - An AI-powered assistant trained on the full course material

The AI assistant is included — not a separate product, not an add-on. It's part of what makes our program better than everyone else's. No other front desk training program equips graduates with an AI tool for the job.

Why the AI Matters (Even Though It's Not the Product)

The bot costs ~$5/month to run. At $9,000-$15,000 per student, it's essentially free to include.

But the value it creates is massive: - Graduates perform better on the job because they have instant access to everything they learned - Better performance means better retention at the clinic - Better retention means WIOA workforce boards see us as a top program - That means more students, more placements, more reimbursements

The bot is a competitive moat disguised as a feature.

Future Revenue: Clinic Subscriptions

When a graduate uses their bot at a dental office, the office manager sees the value. "Can we get one that knows OUR policies?" That's a monthly subscription sold directly to the clinic — pure incremental revenue on top of the course business.

Multi-Industry Vision

Dental is the starting point. The model works for any front desk role: - Medical office administration - Veterinary front desk - Legal receptionist / intake - Hospitality front desk

Same structure: train the student, place them, give them an AI tool. New knowledge files for each industry.

Key Metrics

• Student enrollment volume
• Course completion rate
• Placement rate (the number WIOA cares about most)
• Graduate retention at 6 and 12 months
• Bot usage per graduate (engagement signal)
• Clinic subscription pipeline

WIOA Funding

What Is WIOA?

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act is a federal program through the Department of Labor. It pays for job training for people who are unemployed, underemployed, or changing careers. It is NOT a loan — it's grant funding. Free to the student.

Reimbursement Structure

WIOA reimburses $9,000 to $15,000 per student. The exact amount depends on the local workforce board and the student's specific situation. This covers: - Full course tuition - The AI assistant bot (included with the course) - Placement support

Who Qualifies?

• Adults who are unemployed or underemployed
• Dislocated workers (laid off, plant closings)
• Youth (16-24) with barriers to employment
• Veterans
• People with disabilities
• Low-income individuals

How It Works for Our Students

1. Student visits their local American Job Center or WorkSource office
2. WIOA counselor determines eligibility
3. If approved, counselor authorizes $9,000-$15,000 for Med Desk AI Institute course
4. Student enrolls and completes training at no cost to them
5. Student passes assessment and earns certificate
6. Med Desk AI helps place the student at a dental office
7. Student receives the AI assistant bot as part of their course package
8. WIOA measures success based on placement and retention

Why This Matters for Business

• $9,000-$15,000 per student with no tuition collection from the student
• Placement is the key metric — workforce boards care about job placement rates
• The included AI bot helps with retention — graduates with ongoing support stay longer
• Strong placement and retention = workforce board keeps sending us students
• The bot is a competitive differentiator — no other dental training program includes an AI assistant

Important: ETPL Requirement

To accept WIOA funding, Med Desk AI Institute must be on the state's Eligible Training Provider List. Each state has its own application process.

Clinic-Branded Bot (Subscription Add-On)

What It Is

A separate revenue stream from the core course business. Dental clinics can subscribe monthly for a dedicated bot that includes everything the student bot has PLUS their office-specific knowledge.

This is NOT included with the course. This is a direct subscription from the clinic.

How Clinics Find Us

The natural upsell from the course: a graduate gets placed at a clinic, uses their included bot daily, the office manager notices and asks "can we get one that knows OUR policies?" — that's the subscription.

What Makes It Different From the Student Bot

Universal course knowledge plus clinic-specific files: hours, providers, insurance panels, scheduling rules, phone scripts, and internal policies.

Clinic-Specific Files

Onboarding a New Clinic

1. Send intake questionnaire
2. Collect office details
3. Create new OpenClaw agent with symlinked universal knowledge + custom files
4. Create dedicated Telegram bot via BotFather
5. Bind and restart gateway

Full checklist at meddesk-clinic-template/ONBOARDING.md

Roadmap

AI Assistant Bot (Included With Course)

What It Is

A Telegram-based AI reference tool trained on the full Med Desk AI course material. Every graduate who passes and gets placed receives access. It's included with the course — not a separate product or add-on.

Why We Include It

The bot is a competitive differentiator for the course. No other dental front-office training program gives graduates an AI assistant they can use on the job. It helps with retention (which WIOA cares about) and makes our course more attractive to workforce boards and students.

What It Does

Students message it from their workplace and get short, accurate answers in seconds. Covers scheduling, insurance verification, billing, HIPAA compliance, phone techniques, records management, dental terminology, and patient communication.

What It Won't Do

• Give clinical advice — redirects to dentist or clinical lead
• Guarantee insurance coverage — always notes it's plan-specific
• Make things up — says "I don't know, check with your office manager"
• Answer off-topic questions — stays in the dental front-office lane

Technical Details

Architecture Changelog

Track every significant system change here. When visuals need regenerating, note it.

2026-02-19 — Initial Build

• OpenClaw gateway configured on Mac
• Main agent (Codex 5.3) + meddesk agent (GPT-4o-mini) active
• Telegram channel bound to meddesk agent
• 13 knowledge files in universal layer
• Symlink architecture: universal → student bot
• Clinic template created with placeholder SOUL.md
• Self-learning loop: gap scanner (4h) + weekly intelligence (Sundays)
• Backups: local (6h) + Google Drive (daily) + cleanup (daily)
• Wiki site: auto-built from markdown, hosted on Cloudflare Pages
• Visual diagrams created: flowchart, architecture dashboard, student journey

Visuals Status

Architecture

Overview

Self-hosted AI system on OpenClaw platform. One gateway on a Mac routes messages from Telegram to AI agents, each with their own workspace and knowledge files.

Agents

Knowledge Architecture

• meddesk-universal/knowledge/ — Single source of truth (13 files)
• meddesk-ai-institute/knowledge/ — Symlinks to universal (student bot)
• meddesk-clinic-template/ — Templates for new clinic onboarding
• Future clinic workspaces symlink to universal + have their own clinic/ folder

Why Symlinks?

When you update a universal knowledge file, every bot that symlinks to it gets the update instantly. Update once, benefit everywhere.

Channels

Currently Telegram only. OpenClaw supports WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack, Discord and more — all plug-and-play when ready.

Backup System

Disaster Recovery

• Restore from local: tar -xzf ~/backups/meddesk/YYYY-MM-DD/meddesk-backup-HHMM.tar.gz
• Restore from Drive: download archive, extract, restart gateway
• Restore from git: git log, checkout good commit, restart gateway

Self-Learning System

The bot gets smarter every week without manual intervention.

How It Works

1. Student asks a question the bot can't answer

The bot redirects: "Check with your office manager" or "That's a clinical question."

2. Gap Scanner catches the redirect

A cron job scans all bot conversations every 4 hours, looking for redirect phrases. Each gap gets logged to gaps.md with the topic and reason. Cost: ~$0.02/run.

3. Weekly Intelligence Report

Every Sunday at 8 PM, an AI reads the gaps log and produces a report: top 5 unanswered questions, recommended additions to knowledge files, suggested new files. Cost: ~$0.03/run.

4. Human reviews and approves

The team reviews the weekly report and decides what to add. This quality gate prevents hallucinated content from entering the knowledge base.

5. Knowledge updated — all bots benefit instantly

Approved additions go into universal knowledge files. All bots get smarter immediately via symlinks.

Visual Architecture Diagrams

Interactive visual documents showing how the Med Desk AI system is built. Each opens in a new browser tab.

System Flowchart

Open Interactive Flowchart

Full system map: users → channels → AI engine → knowledge → self-learning → backups → business model. Draggable nodes with pan/zoom and hover tooltips. Use for technical presentations.

Architecture Dashboard

Open Architecture Dashboard

Five tabs: Architecture, Self-Learning Loop, Business Model, Automated Jobs, File Structure. Color-coded components. Use for business partner conversations.

Student Journey

Open Student Journey

Nine-step flow from WIOA eligibility to using the AI assistant on the job. Plain language, no jargon. Use for student orientation and marketing materials.

When to Regenerate

Update these diagrams when any of the following change: - New agent added (first clinic bot, new industry vertical) - New channel added (WhatsApp, iMessage) - Cron jobs added or removed - Knowledge structure changes (new files, new layers) - Business model changes (new revenue streams, pricing)

To update: ask Claude to regenerate the specific HTML file with current architecture, download it, copy to the wiki folder, rebuild and push.

Current Status

See Architecture Changelog for what's current.

Cost Breakdown

Revenue Per Student

$9,000 - $15,000 via WIOA reimbursement

Operating Costs

Margin

At $9,000-$15,000 per student and ~$8/month in bot operating costs, the AI assistant is essentially free to include with the course. It costs almost nothing to run but adds significant value to the program.

Clinic Bot Add-On

Each subscribing clinic adds ~$5-10/month in API costs. Subscription pricing above that makes every clinic profitable from month one. This is pure incremental revenue on top of the course business.

Security

Action Required

API keys and tokens were exposed in a Claude conversation on Feb 19, 2026. All credentials need rotation.

Credentials to Rotate

• OpenAI API key (project-scoped for meddesk agent)
• Telegram bot token (Med Desk AI Student Assistant)
• Gateway auth token

Best Practices

• Never paste API keys into AI chat
• Use project-scoped keys with monthly budget caps ($10-20)
• Rotate keys quarterly at minimum
• Store keys only in OpenClaw auth profiles, never in wiki or shared docs

Decision: Initial Architecture

Date: 2026-02-19

Context

Had a 4,290-line raw course export as knowledge base. Bot running on gpt-5.3-codex (wrong model for Q&A). Responses too long, numbered lists, sometimes hallucinated.

Options Considered

1. Keep Codex, improve prompt — Rejected (wrong model class)
2. Switch to GPT-4o — Good but expensive for reference Q&A
3. Switch to GPT-4o-mini — Fast, cheap, good enough

Decision

GPT-4o-mini with project-scoped API key. Restructured dump into 13 files. SOUL.md with 150-word cap. Universal knowledge layer with symlinks. Self-learning loop. Automated backups. Clinic template for Product 2.

Outcome

Bot gives short, accurate, well-formatted answers. Self-learning confirmed working. Clinic template ready. Total cost ~$8/month.

Weekly Update #1 — Week of Feb 17, 2026

TL;DR

ETPL papers received by Texas Workforce Commission. While we wait on approval, we built the full AI infrastructure — student assistant bot, self-learning system, and company wiki — all operational.

Key Updates

• TWC received our ETPL papers via USPS on Feb 13. Followed up Tuesday — waiting on response.
• Built the AI student assistant bot on OpenClaw. Trained on our full course. Graduates get access after placement — real-time answers on the job.
• The bot gets smarter as more students use it. Can be made clinic-specific for land-and-expand. Also gives us student tracking after placement.
• Company wiki deployed at meddesk-wiki.pages.dev for full partner visibility.

Blocker

Waiting on TWC for ETPL approval. This is the critical path to accepting WIOA-funded students.

Next Week

1. Follow up with TWC
2. Refine course content and bot knowledge
3. Begin identifying dental clinic placement partners
4. Update visual architecture diagrams