The Stethoscope and the Spreadsheet

Dr. Link Wellborn, CEO of Veterinary Management Groups and Chief Veterinary Officer at Covetrus, joins Peter and Martin to talk through his five-decade career as an independent practice owner in Tampa, the origins of VMG, and the Covetrus acquisition that reshaped the organization's structure. The conversation covers the headwinds facing independent practices today, including impending excess veterinary capacity, affordability pressures, and the mid-level practitioner debate, as well as the c...

Drs. Charlie and Andrea Benson, owners of Monarch Veterinary Clinic outside Chicago, share how they went from 10 years as associates to opening their own practice in under two years, with a nudge from Veterinary Ownership Advocates and a fast-moving search for the right building. The conversation covers how they divided responsibilities from day one, what surprised them most about managing people as owners, and how Andrea built a client base through hyper-local community engagement and social...

Dr. Rick DeBowes of Washington State University joins Peter and Martin to talk about what veterinary students are not learning in school and why it costs them, and their patients, more than they realize. DeBowes describes the hands-on business rotation he co-developed with economist Jeff Sanford, in which students spend five days inside a working practice analyzing compliance rates, unintended discounts, revenue by doctor, and the gap between the medicine offered and the medicine actually del...

What does it look like when someone is genuinely built for veterinary medicine and practice ownership from the very beginning? Dr. Lauren Anthony has been answering that question her whole life, from hiding in a petting zoo trailer at age three to rehabilitating beta fish in her dorm room to opening Atlas Pets in Frisco, Texas just three years out of vet school. In this episode, Dr. Anthony joins Dr. Peter Weinstein and Martin Traub-Werner to talk about the very intentional path she and her h...

Most practice owners know inventory is a problem. Few realize just how much it's quietly costing them. In this episode, Martin and Peter sit down with Emmitt Nantz, co-founder of Inventory Ally, to unpack why COGS is the most overlooked profit lever in veterinary medicine and why fixing it doesn't require firing anyone or seeing more patients. Emmitt also makes a compelling case that veterinary medicine is a service business first, and that practices winning long-term lean into client relati...