The vet clinic with free cold brew and unlimited exams
The vibes are immaculate at Modern Animal.
Happy Sunday to all those not at Coachella this weekend. I enjoyed a lovely day at the park with my pups yesterday and watched a few sets from the comfort of my home. You won’t see me lining up for 12 hours and holding my pee to go to a campsite!
Today’s paid newsletter is all about Modern Animal, a veterinary clinic using technology to revamp the vet experience for owners, pets, and veterinarians. I had a great conversation with Modern Animal’s CEO, Steven Eidelman, and chief medical officer, Dr. Christie Long, for this piece.
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My dogs have better health care than me.
The first time I walked into a Modern Animal veterinary clinic, I was floored by everything it wasn’t: loud, stressful, smelly. A receptionist in blue Figs scrubs greeted me from behind a large iMac, directing me to take a seat in the waiting area and help myself to a free La Colombe coffee or La Croix sparkling water. I admired the cute pet photos and dangling greenery on the walls as I sipped my cold brew, laughing at how quintessentially “LA” this all seemed.
It was 2022 and I was a first-time dog mom. I had already spent the past month mentally preparing for the huge responsibility I was undertaking, checking my bank accounts to make sure I could reasonably afford vet bills, food, and training. And so when the appointment went smoothly, it felt like one less thing to worry about. The vet and technician answered all my questions, knew how to approach my nervous dog, and walked me through the cost and purpose of every vaccine and preventative treatment they recommended. I got to approve what I wanted to pay for, and my pup left with a clean bill of health and a new toy. Suddenly, I was jealous. Why couldn’t my doctors’ visits be this nice?
Alas, there is a reason I love living in LA, and a bougie vet clinic with great service is one of them.
Modern Animal is a veterinary chain that provides primary care, dental cleanings, and non-orthopedic surgery in locations across California, Texas, Colorado, and (soon) Arizona. But the mission behind the company is ambitious: to revolutionize the veterinary business for owners, pets, and veterinarians.
Pet owners spent $39.8 billion on veterinary services last year and are projected to spend as much as $41.4 billion in 2025, according to the American Pet Products Association. Despite this, the legacy veterinary clinic model has remained outdated, Modern Animal CEO and co-founder Steven Eidelman said.
“What I saw was, as a Millennial, I’m not getting the care and the experience that I want when I go to any veterinary hospital,” Eidelman told me. “The experience that people have working in them is even worse. … If this is about building a better relationship with a veterinarian and a client, we need to change the environment that they’re working in.”