Alumni Spotlight: Mobile Veterinary Business
Mobile Veterinary Practice Initiated by Cal Poly Grads Finds Success
BY LAUREN MCEWEN
Alumnus Jacob Wright (Animal Science, ’20) co-founded a mobile veterinary franchise that allows doctors to offer a wide range of services such as exams, routine care and vaccinations on the go.
Wright partnered with Dr. Raffy Dorian, who also studied animal science at Cal Poly, and Dr. Daniel Gutman to launch the franchise, called Vetama, with the assistance of Cal Poly’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The business model, started in San Luis Obispo, is now being used in Salem, Oregon, and will soon expand to San Diego.
Founded in June 2022, Vetama is equipped to offer general veterinary care and is sold to veterinarians as a means of incorporating quality, comfort and efficiency into their practice, said Wright. The inspiration for the mobile care van came from the experiences shared by Dorian, Wright and Gutman while working together at the mobile veterinary practice Central Coast Veterinary Service. Each franchise sold includes the van and guidance from Wright and his team to assist in getting started.
Wright said the inspiration for the mobile business began with his time as an animal science undergraduate but really took root as a graduate student in the Cal Poly Orfalea College of Business’s MBA program. There, Learn by Doing paved the way for Wright’s concept to flourish. “While in the MBA program, we developed this model,” says Wright, “You have to Learn by Doing. If you don’t actually do it, you won’t learn anything.”
To jumpstart the business, Wright turned to Cal Poly’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Incubator, a two-year program that provides everything needed for early-stage companies to develop into successful enterprises. The CIE prepared the Vetama founders for various facets of the business such as marketing, promotion and expansion. Success followed not long after, with Dr. Kasey Joynt, a veterinarian in Salem, Oregon, making the first purchase of a Vetama mobile unit. Joynt said he is experiencing an overwhelmingly positive response from his clients about the quality, convenience and efficacy of the mobile vet practice.
Cal Poly’s polytechnic and interdisciplinary educational model helped prepare Wright, Dorian and Gutman to launch their mobile veterinary franchise. Wright shared that seeing the success of the original location in San Luis Obispo being replicated elsewhere is empowering but acknowledged that there is always room for continuous improvement, especially when it comes to technology.
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