This Miami-based startup with 120 employees is already the nation’s leading on-demand marketplace for dental talent.
On Oct. 17, 2019, a dental hygienist in Bradenton, on Florida’s West coast, picked up a temporary job using GoTu Technology’s startup’s platform. The app, then called TempMee, was a little buggy, a little glitchy, but on that day it solved a real problem for both the hygienist and the office. Six years to the day after that very first shift was completed, GoTu’s co-founders and co-CEOs Ed Thomas and Cary Gahm closed a $45 million growth funding round led by Long Ridge Equity Partners.
GoTu is an on-demand marketplace that connects hygienists, assistants, and associate dentists with dental practices to fill temporary shifts in real time. The new capital, which includes participation from institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management and was announced today, marks a major milestone for this profitable Miami-based startup that has now filled more than 500,000 shifts across 44 states as Washington DC as the nation’s largest dental talent marketplace. This growth round brings GoTu’s funding to date to about $61 million.
Gahm and Thomas say GoTu’s platform helps dental professionals, mostly women, earn the extra money that lets their kids play travel hockey or makes a long-postponed family vacation possible. They have heard from office managers who used the platform to clear 90-day appointment backlogs or stave off staff burnout. “These are real people with real lives and real families and we get to make an impact,” Gahm said in an interview with Refresh Miami. “That’s something that has never been lost on us.”
The investment comes at a pivotal moment for the dental industry, which continues to face acute shortages of hygienists and assistants. Demand has surged. The company completed just 678 shifts in 2020, its first full year. In 2024, that number reached roughly 185,000. In 2025, without the benefit of this new capital, they expect to complete 265,000. “We think 2026 will truly be a breakout year,” Thomas said.
For Thomas, who describes the business as “a robust marketplace paired with robust technology,” the funding accomplishes several goals. First, it accelerates product development, including new software that makes it easier for offices and professionals to interact. GoTu recently hired a world-class CTO to lead that evolution. Second, it fuels a major national expansion. “Ninety percent of our business right now is east of the Rockies,” he said. “This fundraise allows us to bring this technology and this opportunity to California, to Oregon and to Washington, highly dense areas that have been hit pretty critically by these staffing shortages.”
And the opportunity is huge, Gahm adds. “Even with all our growth, we still only have 4 or 5 percent of the market, the underserved offices that need help with their staffing.”
To make that happen, the company plans to open 18 new territories and nearly double its go-to-market team. Nearly all of GoTu’s 120 employees work in-person at the company’s Miami Tower offices, where a buzzing central Commons space has become the heart of the GoTu’s in-person culture. Engineers work alongside sales reps; product managers huddle next to customer success teams. Those spontaneous connections, like “parallel play” for adults, are a key to the team’s success, Gahm said.
Earlier in the startup’s life, the co-founders debated the merits of remote work with Kevin O’Leary on a televised episode of Money Court, a debate Thomas admits they technically “lost” but that time has proved them right. The co-founders say in-person work produces better retention and better collaboration because the team is grounded in what’s actually happening in the company every day. That’s energy you can’t replicate remotely.
Choosing Long Ridge as a partner was equally rooted in culture. Thomas and Gahm interviewed firms across the country, ultimately aligning with Long Ridge’s people-first philosophy and long-term view of company building. They describe Long Ridge Founder Jim Brown and Managing Partner Kevin Bhatt as instrumental leaders whose style mirrors their own core values – the belief in creating lasting impact rather than growth at all costs.
“In the fragmented landscape of dental workforce solutions, GoTu stands out for its nationwide reach, its enterprise-grade platform, and its high satisfaction among both dental offices and professionals,” said Bhatt, in a statement. “We are excited to support the GoTu team as they scale their market-leading platform through geographic expansion, product innovation, and strategic partnerships.”
The new partners join a roster of supporters that includes early Miami-based backers like Florida Funders, Roo Capital, Miami Angels, and Flamingo Capital, plus investor Black Granite Capital and Lake Michigan Capital. For Gahm and Thomas, that Miami connection is personal. Both have made the city home; both credit early mentors and the Knight Foundation with opening doors; and both see GoTu as part of a broader flywheel for Miami tech. “I believe [Miami’s] next 10 great startups are going to come from the amazing people we have here at GoTu,” Thomas said.
What’s next? National expansion, deeper product innovation, and a continued push to “change how dentistry works” – and maybe, ultimately, how work works more broadly. GoTu will be hiring nearly across the board in all go-to-market areas as well as hiring engineering talent. But at the center of it all remains the same idea that sparked that first shift in 2019: giving dental professionals ownership over their careers while helping practices deliver better care.
Keeping them going is their “why.” Says Thomas: “If you don’t have a big why, you’re going to burn out, you’re going to fail.”
About their 23-year friendship – and counting – Gahm adds: “Ed’s dad always says one of the most amazing things about the success the company has had is that we’re still best friends, and that’s been awesome.”
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