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"We Are In The Relationship Business"
A Deep Dive with Vetcelerator President Drew Bartholomew
Issue #158
February 24th, 2025
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đïž The ultimate standoff
In todayâs newsletter, we chat with Drew Bartholomew, the president of Vetcelerator.
Vetcelerator provides a mix of marketing, group purchasing, website development, and recruiting services. How do you determine which services a clinic needs most, and how do these services integrate to drive overall practice growth?
Every clinic needs all of these services in some form, even if they donât get them from us. Think of it this way: if a corporate group bought an independent practice, they would incorporate all of these services, almost immediately. The clinicâs website would be redesigned to capture audiences, the marketing mix would be increased to support search and social ads for client acquisition, purchasing discounts would be set up, and full-cycle recruitment services would run continuously. All of these services work together to either grow the top line or the bottom line of the practice.
Your team is fully remote, What are the biggest advantages and challenges of running a remote team?
The biggest advantages are flexibility (both for the employer and the employee) and access to a larger talent pool. Weâre fortunate to be a company that was in-person before going remote which addresses the largest challenge: a sense of community. Our people know each other and support each other as a team.
It would have been much harder to build on that community had we not been side-by-side for a period of years before we went fully remote. With that said, even though I think we do a good job of fostering community, itâs something that constantly needs to be worked on to make sure we retain all the great people we have.
Do clinics pay a subscription fee, a percentage of revenue, or a performance-based structure? Whatâs the business model?
Clinics pay a subscription fee to access our services and they are assigned a clinic success manager to maximize the value of our product offering. For some services, such as recruitment, there is a contingency fee for performance.
How crucial is social media visibility for brands in 2025? What specific strategies do you see as most underutilized in the vet and pet practice space?
Every veterinary practice is a brand. They have a brand name, that brand name serves a relatively narrow radius around a physical location and that name is known or not known in the community. The hardest part about being a brand is to get somebody to care about you at all. If people know you exist, you at least can be part of their consideration set when it comes time to purchase your services.
Social media is great for building that awareness and it is grossly underutilized in local vet and pet businesses. So first, some small brand building via social media is a good strategy. Second, itâs not only that you are top of mind for consumers but we need to also consider the situations and the frequency in which the brand can be used. For most vet practices, they are considered in two situations: 1) when there is a problem, e.g. sick pet, or 2) an event-based response, e.g. upcoming vacation, overdue for vaccination.
In this way, veterinary care almost looks like a soup company in the purchase consideration framework of a consumer. So, strategies leveraging your existing network of followers, to illicit more purchase responses are also good strategies and we work on that with our network of practices.
As a ânomadic CEO,â you frequently visit clients across the country. How has this hands-on approach deepened your understanding of their challenges, and how has it strengthened your relationships compared to a fully remote approach?
Weâre in a relationship business. For years, very few of our teammates have met our clients, and whenever any of us got the opportunity to do so, it was so memorable â so we endeavored to do it more. Our clients spend about as much time at their practice as they do at home, so it is a deeply personal experience. When you visit the practice, you get exposed to a part of the ownerâs personal identity.
I recall a practice I visited in my home state of MN last summer, and the physical space of that clinic was a 1:1 representation of the person Iâd been working with for a year. It was dripping in her personality, and it was so rewarding to be able to see a physical representation of a person youâve only known digitally.
Recruiting in the veterinary and pet services space is notoriously difficult. How does your approach to hiring stand apart from traditional recruiting services? what trends do you see shaping the future of hiring in the space?
For much of what we do, I wouldnât say that we are vastly different than a traditional recruiting service, and for many clinics, itâs not a bad idea to have multiple lines in the water with respect to sourcing top talent, especially when faced with some of the hiring challenges practices have today. Many clinics donât use a professional recruiter, so most of the time our competition is inertia. That said, I think the way we think about the challenge is different. We think of it as a marketing problem so our solution reflects that in at least two ways.
First, we find ways to source passive talent, e.g. candidates who are not actively job searching. Passive candidates make up a large part of the talent pool, roughly 70%, so we find ways to target them. Second is we incorporate recruiting into the marketing strategy. For example, if someone wants to recruit staff, but has a website that looks to be from the dawn of the internet, we make adjustments. Itâs going to be hard to sell a candidate on your practice when the digital representation of it isnât up to standards.
You've said - âEvery business problem is a marketing problem." Can you elaborate?
This isnât just our belief, there are some great thinkers on this subject, like Peter Fader and Ed Nevraumont. Here is the issue we see often: âmarketingâ is often misused interchangeably with âadvertisingâ which really limits its power. Instead, we think of marketing as a way to solve problems.
It is creating, communicating, and capturing value. In this lens, how you manage your phone system is as much a marketing problem as managing your advertising campaigns. If your ad campaigns are effective and that makes your phone ring, but your answer rate is 65% and only 25% of those calls lead to an appointment, you have a marketing problem manifesting as phone handling.
You work with many grooming, boarding, day-care, and training facilities, what are some common challenges you frequently see these business owners come up against?
Much of the same. Knowing which activities lead to customer acquisition, and knowing how to keep customers engaged and retained to increase their lifetime value to the practice. Our clients are great at customer service and thinking about how to delight customers, but they may not have the right data points that lead to better decision-making, nor the time to contemplate those data. Thatâs where we can be really impactful.
This is a brand new segment in which we discuss pet health. This week, Marisa Hoskins discusses:
Superfood Spotlight: The Power of Green Leafy Vegetables
As a certified canine nutritionist who scaled a premium pet food company to a successful exit, I've seen firsthand how incorporating superfoods can transform a dog's health. Green leafy vegetables stand out as particularly powerful additions to any dog's diet. A groundbreaking study with Scottish Terriers showed that simply adding these vegetables to their regular kibble reduced bladder cancer risk by 90% - a statistic that changed how we formulated recipes at Puppy Gang Fresh Foods.
When introducing greens, focus on kale, spinach, and collard greens. These powerhouses pack essential nutrients like vitamin K for bone health, iron for energy, and antioxidants that combat inflammation. My rescue Kalinda's transformation began with integrating these ingredients into her meals. Start with small amounts (about 1 tablespoon per 20 pounds of body weight) and lightly steam for optimal nutrient absorption and digestibility.
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