Editor’s note: VetInsite is one of three emerging companies that will present at the Capital Market Exchange on Feb. 22 at the Crabtree Marriott. Each company will be featured in LTW in the form of a Q&A with executive management about history, products and why investors should be interested. BioResource International was featured on Friday. Legacy 2 Future was featured on Monday.
Executive management at VetInsite provided the answers to LTW.
For details about the forum which is sponsored in part by Local Tech Wire, Corporate Investment Center, 919 Marketing, FOCUS Resources and Ascot Technologies, see: www.capitalmarketexchange.com
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If you had only one chance and one paragraph to convince an investor, how would you answer this question: “Why should an investor choose your company?
VetInsite’s innovative marketing tool, the Pet Portal, provides a new marketing channel to pet product and veterinary pharmaceutical companies to communicate the benefits of their products directly to pet owners. We provide unique access to pet owners with the endorsement of the most their most trusted source of health information — their veterinarians.
What is the “pain point” (or points) you address for your customers?
Veterinarians are superb animal health providers. They are lousy marketers. VetInsite offers veterinarians improved client communications, client education and targeted marketing for hospital services. Moreover, the administration of VetInsite’s web based customer relationship management solution is managed solely by VetInsite, without the need for veterinarian intervention. VetInsite Pet Portals have a proven record of increasing pet owner compliance which makes them economically compelling for the practice.
What makes your company unique? Do you have a proprietary and/or a patented technology? Please explain why it is unique and what the status is of any patent filings.
VetInsite is the only company that has the ability to extract data from the computer systems of thousands of veterinary practices around the country on a daily basis. We use this data to provide pet owners with web access to their pet’s health records and with the ability to communicate with their veterinarian, order pet pharmaceuticals and schedule appointments VetInsite is the only company with established proprietary relationships with the ten largest practice management computer system vendors in the industry. These relationships provide the technical support necessary for the data extraction process and provide a significant barrier to entry for potential competitors.
What makes your product(s) and/or services unique vs. your competition? (Who is your competition, and what do they offer?) If you have no competition, why not?
VetInsite uses the data it collects to create individual private websites for pet owners called Pet Portals. Pet owners view their own pets’ health information and receive highly targeted messages on their Pet Portal. Pet Portals are accessed via the vet’s website and are branded by the veterinarian — not VetInsite. While there are several marketing companies serving the animal health industry, none provides the intimate knowledge of the individual pet owner, the highly targeted access to the pet owner via a veterinarian endorsed communication tool, nor the real time data on the purchase behavior of individual pet owners.
Does your company already generate revenue? If so, how much? Are you cashflow positive?
VetInsite projects 2005 revenues of to be approximately $1 million this year, a four fold increase over last year. We are not yet cash flow positive.
What is your target market? What is the size of that market in terms of dollars? What share of that market do you believe you can win?
VetInsite views both veterinarians (to whom we sell Pet Portals) and pet product manufacturers (to whom we provide marketing services) as our customers. We believe we will capture 3,200 (approximately 18% of market) veterinary practice customers by 2009 and we project $10.7 million (3% of manufacturer marketing dollars — 15% of manufacturer sales of $3 billion) of annual manufacturer marketing income by 2009.
What will you do with the invested funds? What is the timeline for product delivery? If you have existing products and services, how will additional funding help you expand your company, if that is the intention, or will you develop new products?
Funds will be used to support the growth of the company in the areas of sales, marketing and customer support. We are not raising funds for product development.
What do you want from an investor other than money?
We are looking for passive investors.
Why will investors be impressed with your management team?
Management has a proven record of success within the industry and outstanding domain knowledge. We combine a strong technical team with marketing knowledge of a peculiar niche industry.
What is the exit strategy for the investor from your company? Are there potential strategic alliances with larger companies? Do you wish to take the company public? Or do you wish to grow the company and either sell it or acquire other companies?
VetInsite is an attractive acquisition for a larger publishing and/or information company in the industry. The intent is to grow and sell the company. VetInsite has a signed Letter of Intent from a major veterinary organization associated with major veterinary product distributors who will provide VetInsite with sales and marketing support.
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FACT BOX: VetInsite
MISSION STATEMENT: VetInsite’s mission is to become the leading veterinary marketing company in the country by provide value added marketing and information services to Veterinarians, pet owners and animal health companies
TYPE OF COMPANY: Tech/marketing
ADDRESS: 1110 Bonifant St, #401, Silver Spring, MD 20910
PHONE NUMBER: 301-562-0787
WEB SITE: www.vetinsite.com
MANAGEMENT TEAM MEMBERS: Peter S. Glassman, DVM, CEO; Kevin Scholz, COO; Athena Haresign, VP Development; Tim Singletary, CTO.
BOARD MEMBERS: Peter Glassman, DVM, Chairman; Athena Haresign; Ken West; Philippe Moreau, DVM
INVESTORS: Angel investors and principals, $3 million
REVENUES: Fiscal 2004 – $250,000
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 2000
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 10
