Vetsie Founder Alex Chieng LIVE on Global Startup Report (24 June 2022)

We're live! What's happening, FI land? I'm your host, Martin Martinez, EIR with Founder Institute, the world's largest pre-seed accelerator in the world. I think I said world twice. Uh, this is welcome to season 2 of the Global Startup Report. Uh, I'm really looking forward to this, uh, next wave, uh, of really great special guests and shows that we're gonna be running for the next 6 weeks, uh, a little bit more heading into our big, uh, annual conference that we're bringing back on the virtual stage, Founder X, August 2nd through the 4th. More details, uh, later on in the show. But I am, again, I'm very excited to be back for this. You know, we started the Global Startup Report at the beginning of the year, had a really fun run, didn't really do a lot of promotions on it. But now, you know, we certainly have taken a lot of those learnings out and applied them to what we're hoping for for season 2. So we're going to have just as many special guests, founders from all around the world, really interesting updates from the global FI community, talking about some other great events that we have coming up throughout the rest of the year. Ways that you might be able to get involved, either applying, mentoring, or leading FI chapters around the world. Before we get into our special guest, Alex, with Vetsi, I want to bring up our producer behind the scenes. We're going to get into some news. Dustin, what's going on, my man? This is what, the second one you've done on Restream today?

Yeah, yeah, I was on the Restream earlier with one of our leaders in Switzerland. Yeah, Ingeborg. But yeah, psyched, as you said, to be here for kicking off our season 2 of Global Startup Report. And yeah, as you said, we're really excited about the 6+ weeks of guests that we have lined up. We're gonna be coming to you live at this time every Friday and yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're excited about it, but without further ado, yeah, let's kind of get into our opening segment here, talk about a little bit of the latest Founder Institute network news. So bringing you kind of top media stories or interviews with portfolio alumni of the Founder Institute. And the first story that we have is a funding news story. So the company is called Babbeli, This is an FI Toronto alumni, and the company just raised $2.5 million US in a seed round, and they're basically helping to tackle a big challenge in parenting, which is speech and language delays. And people might not know that speech and language delays actually affect 1 in 10 children in the US and Canada. And so yeah, that's what Babli's software product is helping to identify early, basically, so that you're not left as a parent without anything to to do when a doctor says there might be some kind of development delay. So yeah, we're going to post links to all these stories also on the LinkedIn. But yeah, that's the first one.

Awesome. And then so yeah, we got a couple more before we get in our special guest. Our next one is coming out of FI Montreal. Was it Dot Mine Unlock? That's—

yes, that's right.

Yeah. So they, they won Collision. So Collision, the big conference on par with like a South by Southwest, if y'all recall. And we did a couple South by Southwest related events for the Gold Star Report last season. Collision was going on all week. Our team over in Toronto has just been crushing it. I'm sure they can't wait to go to bed. But at FI Montreal participating, they won the 2022 startup pitch competition. So that's really exciting. So what Dot provides, tech-enabled solutions improving mental health. Which again is just even more needed these days given where we're just at in the world and just all the terrible things happening in the news. You know, we need this. So they have a web-based platform supporting caregivers for mental health as well as some headset hardware that's helping measure brain activity. I find that really interesting, Dustin, actually trying to figure out just kind of where the headspace truly is and being actively monitoring that. That kind of stuff. So congrats to.mind Unlock for—

Yeah, amazing to see. Yeah, one, an NFT come because, yeah, this is like one of the biggest, as you said, startup conferences in all of Canada. And so super cool to see this company win the pitch competition. We'll put the link again to the article from BetaKit that announced they're winning, and they have the hardware, the actual headset that.mind has. So there's some pictures you can like check out and learn a bit more. Final news story here before we bring on our real special guest is just The best fitness apps of 2022, according to Sports Illustrated, recently featured Sworkit, which is an FI Washington, DC portfolio company. Basically, Sworkit is a mobile app that you can build endurance, strength, stamina while achieving your goals with the best fitness apps for every lifestyle is what Sports Illustrated says. And so, yeah, super cool to see. I don't know, that's just like a very reputable magazine for fitness and yeah, to see Sworkit being placed up there among the best fitness apps for people to try out. So yeah, we'll post that link also in the stories as well. I'm going to go away here now. That's the closing of our network news segment. I'll jump back on at the end, but take it away here, Martin, with introducing our special guest, and I'll join later.

I always appreciate that, Dustin. Thank you for helping put this on. Man behind the scenes, Dustin Betts. So if you're watching this, you're probably watching this on one of a few platforms that we broadcast to. YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, but you're probably on LinkedIn, you're probably on Twitter. All this you can always revisit on any of these platforms, but we're using Restream. That's our behind-the-scenes tool that allows us to go across all these different channels. So feel free to drop some stuff in the comments. Uh, Cindy, perfect timing. Uh, thank y'all for joining us here on LinkedIn. We'll be just like this. We're going to be surfacing really cool things. So if you have some questions, for our special guest Alex Chang, founder, CEO of Betsy, please drop them in the chat. We're gonna have some pretty cool conversations, but we'll also feature some really great comments and thoughts from you, the audience, coming in. So definitely engage, share this amongst your community, make sure you're subscribing to these updates on the LinkedIn, on the Twitter, so that every Friday for the next few weeks you'll be able to get first front row seats to the Global Startup Report as we shoot these live. So without further ado, I want to bring up our special guest kicking off season 2 of GSR, as I'm going to start calling it. Let's see, co-founder and CEO Alex Chang. Alex, what's going on, amigo?

Hey, what's going on, guys?

Oh, we're living, man. Thank you for being our first guest kicking off season 2. This is going to be a fun time.

Yeah, I feel very, very special. I mean, all the news that you guys just reported, it's It's amazing. Kudos to Founder Institute and everything that you guys are doing.

Oh yeah. Well, again, we can't do it without founders trying to build big things just like yourself. So we're just really the vassal. You're the ones that are guiding the ship. So tell us a little bit, where are you coming from, by the way? Again, I'm here, I'm actually coming in from the Dell campus headquarters, and most people are used to my backdrop with all the plants, but I've been here in Round Rock, Texas. Helping some kids at the university level kind of refine some pitches. So that's where I'm at, just in this big empty box. Thank you to Dell for supporting me. Where are you coming from, Alex?

I'm coming from Calgary, Alberta. So I'm actually from Canada. And unlike yourself in your, in your bougie office, I'm in my work from home type of attire in my living room. And yeah, Calgary, Alberta is the place to be. I was initially born and raised in Vancouver, BC. But recently moved over to Calgary, Alberta. You might hear my dogs here and there. Let me go ahead and show you Casper, one of my poms. He's scratching for attention. But yeah, I know, to answer your question, I'm in Calgary, Alberta.

That's awesome. You might want to keep the dogs in frame. It's probably going to keep the viewers here much better than my ugly mug. So I love that. I love that. I love animals as well. And your startup is focused for pets and the owners that take care of them. So let's dive into that. Tell us, you know, you're a founder in your past. Tell us kind of what that journey brought you, because this isn't your first pet startup, if I'm not mistaken. So give us that little insight into the journey. What brought you in to help lead UrVet-C and maybe some of the learnings from past companies? Into what you're doing now?

Yeah, and I love this question because it really hits sort of a personal story for me. When I first started Betsy, and I'll tell you sort of my journey starting Betsy, maybe a little bit more about my past and where we're at today. So starting Betsy, I started Betsy actually during the pandemic when it was extremely, extremely difficult for pet owners to get into the veterinary clinic or even speak with veterinary professionals. They were backed up, there were weeks and weeks away before you can actually go see a veterinary professional. So it all started when my French Bulldog couldn't walk up the stairs. And for those of you who know or have a Bulldog or Frenchie, they usually have these back issues. So he couldn't walk up the stairs. So the first thing I did, of course, was I called my vet, and I couldn't get into the vet for 3 and a half weeks. That was the earliest time that I could get in, um, because they were backed up. And I personally didn't want to go to, you know, another veterinary clinic or another veterinary professional who doesn't have that background history about, you know, my Frenchie, or his name is Bentley, which I'll definitely bring him up here. He's just snoring in the background. And at that point, and as cliché as this sounds, I was like, there has to be a better way for pet owners to communicate with their vets, not just going into the veterinary clinic, but can I speak with them on the phone? Can I do a video call for 5 minutes? I just want to know. And I'm one of those crazy, anxious pet owners where whenever there's something going on with my pets, I need an answer now. I don't want to wait 2 days and I don't want to wait 3.5 weeks. I want an answer now. So that sort of prompted the story of our very early beginnings where we created essentially a platform for veterinary professionals and veterinary clinics to be able to conveniently speak with their clients. Basically a tech-enabled platform where they can do video calls, video calls, audio calls, and even messages. And that was really, I guess, my inspiration from the very start is there has to be a better way for pet owners to conveniently speak with veterinary professionals, not just booking in the traditional way of going into the clinic. The way that I like to compare it, it's like seeing your family doctor. You know, it's daunting, you're in the waiting room, you have no idea when you're going to be able to see them. So anyways, I transported that idea to the pet space. There wasn't a whole lot of competitors in this space when we first started, and here we are, here we are today.

That's awesome. So, so, I mean, tell me, so this is, you know, this is telehealth, uh, for your pets. And, um, and I'm surprised given all the advances that we've seen in the middle of pandemic, we haven't had any of these kind of applying to, you know, the pet, the animal level. So what, what was kind of the status quo up until this point before you really started thinking, hey, we need to, we need to build this?

Yeah, I mean, the, the status quo before telehealth was— and if I'm answering, and hopefully this answers your question— it was traditionally you would call the veterinary clinic and you would wait for an appointment. And that was the status quo. I mean, there was a lot of, I would say, similar platforms in the past where you would be able to email a veterinary professional and wait days for them to respond. But there really wasn't that instant connection, which is what we're currently building, that instant or what we call asynchronous consultations, where you can see all the available vets that are online. And essentially, like, just like Facebook or WhatsApp, you can essentially get a live conversation right off the bat. And that's, you know, that's sort of the status quo, is that if you want vet advice, you want someone to speak with regarding your pets, that there's always going to be someone there for you.

Wow. So tell us a little bit more about kind of how that product's operating. You obviously came through FI, turned this into something that is— I don't know what happened to my camera. Let me see if I can switch things up.

Oh, I'm froze.

I don't know what's going on with me. Give me one second. Technical issues. On that. Come back. I'm coming back through the laptop camera. I get the lights a little better anyway. Sorry, Dustin, in the background. This is what happens when I'm not at my command center. Got to deal with some of those technical issues, but I'm a troubleshooter on that.

So that was a nice snapshot, though.

That was a nice switch over the lighting. So yeah, I got a— I have a pretty ridiculous kind of like double setup right now, Alex. I got like a portable monitor and this little like light.

Oh, that's so cool.

I do a lot of these, so I have to, I have to always kind of show up and have a little bit of this stuff. Gotta be a good host, right? Um, so, uh, tell us again, tell us kind of where, where it started as you got through FI. Um, you know, tell us a little bit more about that business model, where you're at. Are you everywhere right now? Are you still just kind of hyper-focused in specific regions?

Yeah, I'll talk about FI and I'll sort of talk about where we're at today with the platform. When I first joined FI, I was a solo founder. And although I did have previous startup experience, I think Founder Institute, going through that program really structured how to really run a startup. Back when I was running startups, I didn't have a business model. I didn't have, you know, I didn't know what, you know, the business model canvas was. I didn't know how to structure revenue. So going into Founder Institute, really helped me structure my business planning, my business model, and really just business acumen starting into jumping into founder— I mean, sorry, jumping into Betsy. Like I said, I was initially a solo founder. Now we have a team of 8, 4 core founders and also 4 advisors as well. And where we're at today at Betsy, so we initially again started just as more of a B2B platform. So we had a tech-enabled platform for veterinary clinics and veterinary professionals. And we did a pilot. At one point, we had just over 20 veterinary clinics across Canada, more so in the western side of things, testing our platform and piloting our platform. And over that pilot, we of course received a lot of feedback, and we use that feedback to really drive Betsy to where we're at today. And we did, at the end of late last year, we did a pilot not just on the B2B side, but we all always had this thought in our head Why won't we go direct to consumer? Like, why won't, why couldn't pet owners speak with not just their primary vet, but also vets or a veterinary technologist without going to the primary vet? So we sort of went to that consumer model as well, where pet owners just want quick advice. Do I need to come into the clinic? My pet just ate chocolate. Do I have to come into the clinic? So anyways, we diverged a little bit more into the B2C side or direct to consumer. And now where we're at today and We're actually launching our second version of the app in a few weeks. Where we're at today is that we are— Vetsy is an all-in-one pet ecosystem that encompasses not just telehealth services, but we also have pet training services, pet grooming, dog walking. So we're really becoming this all-in-one pet ecosystem for pet owners beyond just the telehealth aspect. So it's interesting to see how we went you know, strictly from telehealth, now all the way to becoming this all-in-one pet ecosystem.

Oh, that's fantastic. And then remind us, you know, like, just how, how fast has this been moving? Like, when did you graduate through FI? Obviously, you're one of the— joined us in the middle of the pandemic, right?

Yep, that's correct. Yeah. And in terms of how fast we're moving in terms of like company or team numbers, people, etc.

Absolutely. I mean, so it sounds like there's been a lot of progress to date.

Oh yeah, I don't even know where to start. I could ramble on and on about everything that happened post-FI. I think I graduated FI late 2020, and I was part of the Calgary cohort for those who are watching in the audience, and it was spectacular. Anyway, so from a team perspective, we grew from basically myself as a solo founder to a team of 8. We didn't raise any venture capital at that point, and to date we just raised just slightly over $700,000 to date. We went from essentially two pilots, very, very rudimentary, simple MVPs, or minimal viable products, to now we're launching in about two, two and a half weeks to more of a commercializable product that will be set across Canada. Initially, we were just focused on Western Canada, specifically in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, and now we're set to really launch nationwide. And we can dive a lot more to, you know, the telehealth regulations, uh, if that's something that interests you. But, um, you know, there's a lot of different regulations by province, um, which allows— which allows and/or not allow pet owners to speak with vets, um, depending on problems. But hopefully that answers your question.

Oh, absolutely. Give me one second, I've got to clean up my camera a little bit again. That webcam, it's always—

you look good, man.

You look good. I'm trying, man. It's just like— it's like a tone, it's like a soap opera. On this thing. Alex, look into my eyes. So, uh, so again, you have some, you have some special guests with our, with our special guest here too. Tell us a little bit about your animals on this thing. And are you, are you obviously dogfooding to keep it on brand? We're punning this. You, you're leveraging your own platform to find services for your pets too, huh?

100%. I, uh, you know, my secondary goal apart from building the startup is to, is to have my pets become TikTok influencers, uh, and famous TikTok influencers. Um, but yeah, no, I have, uh, I have a Pomsky, and I'll show you them right now actually, from your buddy. Yeah, you're gonna be on camera.

Oh yeah, it's gonna be probably the most watched episode to date just because you're, you're setting the standard. I'm gonna have to have everybody, every guest bring a pet on and moving forward. It's the only way we're gonna keep it going.

Yeah, so this is Casper the Ghost. Um, he looks like a Pom, but, uh, he's actually, um, a Pom, Pomeranian and a Husky mix. So he has that little short snout. But yeah, so he's about 2 years old and he's super furry and cute. And we also have Bentley. He's over there, he's being lazy, but I'll bring him over for sure. But he's a French Bulldog, 5 years old. You'll probably hear him snoring. Hopefully not. I have noise suppression on, so hopefully you don't hear him snoring. But he's over there. I'll bring him over after.

That's awesome. So So I mean, again, you're, you started with this telehealth layer, you're adding this whole like marketplace effectively on it. Are you seeing anything interesting just out of the current user base that you have? Is there certain things that they're really excited about or looking forward to as well outside of what they're using the product for at the moment?

Yeah, absolutely. I think the reason why we're expanding into these different services is because we love to listen and talk to our customers and Initially, when it was just the telehealth aspect, they loved it. We have some amazing, amazing early testimonials. I don't have to go to the vet. I don't have to drive 3 hours. I live in a rural area. So we have these amazing testimonials, and of course we wanted constructive feedback. How do we improve our product, or how do we improve our platform to make it more usable for you? And one of the most common feedback that we received was, I love the telehealth aspect, but is there more? Is there more utility to the app? And that's when we thought there has to be more continuity of care. It's not just that advice that you're looking for, but can I also, you know, book a pet sitter? Can I also book dog training services, pet training services, grooming services? So we're really looking forward to adding these services onto the platform. I think the one thing that really differentiates ourselves from a lot of the competitors that are, you know, either focused just on dog training or dog walking is that all of our services, all the individuals are licensed, where applicable, insured, and they're all vetted by our veterinary team. One fun fact about our team is that 50% of our team are actually veterinary professionals, part of the core founding team. So everyone that comes on the platform, from vet professionals to dog sitters and trainers, they're all vetted. So we sort of have that credibility and hopefully trust from the public that, you know, that when we're booking with an individual on the Vetsy platform, they're 100% vetted, credible, and they're trusted by our team.

Oh, that's fantastic on the feature side. I mean, because I know, and I'm sure you've seen it, this is your industry, but like some of those more dog walking services where you have these horrible stories about, you know, kind of things that are happening on that, you know. The verification piece seems like a very critical and unique kind of value proposition, at least what you got going on.

Yeah.

Yeah. So is there any— so in terms of what do you see in like the most activity right now, or at least like as you're prioritizing some of these new features, is it going to be more grooming on that side or is it going to be just more of like the pet sitting or is there, is there kind of a rhythm to the to the reason?

Yeah, that's a great question. I think this is all coming back to really testing the services to see which— where we're getting the most demand. I anticipate that pet trading will definitely be a hit alongside with telehealth. Of course, telehealth will always be our core service, and the reason why I say pet training as sort of our secondary target market is because with pet trainers, you can do a video consult. It could be anything related to behaviour where your pet doesn't physically have to be with that pet trainer. Like myself, my French Bulldog, he's reactive. He doesn't necessarily need to be with the trainer. I can do a video call with the trainer, they can give me advice and tips, and I can start implementing these strategies with him virtually versus dog walking and pet grooming where they're much more localized. So we do have to build out that supply first all across Canada and then physically have these dog walkers and pet groomers in there. But dog training, you can, you know, it's becoming a very popular trend where you're just doing a video call and you're paying for sessions where you don't have to be with them physically. And there really isn't a whole lot of regulation surrounding that and limitations, I would say. So I anticipate telehealth will always be the core. And then, of course, the secondary target market will be pet trainers.

Got it. And of course, you know, the question that you always get, tell us a little about how you're making money.

Yeah, that's a great question. So our revenue model currently is— so we don't charge anything for pet owners. It's completely free. The only time that we charge, or the only time that Betsy monetizes, is very similar to Uber or DoorDash. We have a small little convenient fee, or convenience fee, or a pet fee is what we call it, whenever you're booking an appointment. So there's no, you know, monthly subscriptions, there's no additional charges. It's just a small convenience fee for us to really provide that platform. In the very near future, we are thinking about implementing some sort of a monthly subscription, and that monthly subscription will allow you— will allow discounted services and/or special perks. I don't want to say too much, but it's super, super exciting, and we'll be announcing that probably near the end of the year.

Oh, we're looking forward to that news then, Alex. So, I mean, up until this point, you know, we've really just been talking about just the more traditional urban relative pet owners, again, dogs, cats, typical things you'd find in a household. But are you, you also mentioned like there are people in more rural areas. So with that, are you seeing opportunities or is there, you know, in terms of like livestock, any other kind of more agricultural kind of pet veterinary care? Is that something that you're looking at or are you still really looking just more at the consumer perspective?

100%. That's actually part of our business roadmap. There's a huge, huge opportunity in livestock and large animal space, 100%. And one of our key partners that we just recently partnered with is actually an agency up in northern Canada where they serve livestock animals, and they don't have a convenient way. They have to drive 3 hours to see the farmers, and providing this accessible platform for them just saves them so much time. But yes, there is a huge opportunity in the space, in the livestock and large animal space, that we're definitely heading into. But for the time being, it's just going to be consumer-based, more companion animals. But there's definitely a huge opportunity in that space.

That's excellent. So, I mean, is there, is there any struggles on this? Because I, I have, um, most people that are vets and that are studying to be vets, technicians, they work in clinics, emergency care, standard general practices. I hear it's actually pretty hard to become a vet. It's like relative to actually becoming a doctor. There's so much— there's so many less, fewer universities that are, that are catered to the veterinary arts than it is human health. Are you seeing, are you seeing any of that? Are you getting any kind of feedback on that educational piece for veterinarians? Is hard to find a lot of vets in this space?

That's a great question, and this would be very well suited for my veterinary team, Dr. Steve Boyer, which is my co-founder, and Alyssa Borden, which is our veterinary technologist. And I'll answer this the best I can. Hopefully you don't yell at me. But yes, there is a huge shortage of veterinary professionals recently because of the burnout. Vets are just burning out. They're burning out in clinic. There's just a lot of patients coming in, you know, pet owner adoption or pet ownership in general has increased significantly over the pandemic. And you can imagine, you know, the ratio of vets, which relatively remain the same versus the ratio of pet owner adoption or pet ownership, has increased significantly. So it's definitely becoming increasingly difficult. And it's a great question that you brought up or a great point that you brought up because One of the other reasons why I'm very excited about building Betsy is because we're not just focused on the consumer end, but we're also providing the opportunity for veterinary professionals to have side income for, you know, performing consultations on the weekends. Or you might even take off, you know, 50% of your veterinary clinic days and do 50% on Betsy where you can make this side income where pet owners are paying you for a consultation. But yeah, to answer directly your question, we're definitely noticing a shortage. There's a lot of, I guess, solutions that are being implemented for the time being, and I have very, very big respects for veterinary professionals who are still in this space.

Yeah, yeah, because you can't really communicate with the patients, you know, you have to go, you have that surrogate that is the parent that you have to go through. So I can only imagine, you know, where that trouble can be. And I have friends in this space and again, I hear it from them. Yeah. So I find it really intriguing on where can you manage that and provide those resources to the providers as well. So tell me again, you have this roadmap, you know, anything cool going on in this world to help you with that growth? I know you were recently kind of going through the fundraising process and, you know, how's that been?

It's been going well. I think now that we're launching the other complimentary services onto the Betsy platform, that really has been my core focus. I've definitely been doing a lot of meetings with investors, with our current shareholders to talk about our next fundraising round. And to be quite, quite frank, I would say, you know, our number one priority is making sure that we have a very seamless launch nationwide first and foremost before going to investors and raising our next round. But yeah, that's, That's where we're at today.

That's fantastic. And again, just for reminding the audience, if you do have any questions, we are getting some people just lighting up the chat on LinkedIn. We have all around the world, Cameroon. I love it.

Hello.

Hello, Cape Town. Yeah, I'll come out after this. I know. Yeah, a lot of PET fans down there.

Yeah.

So I mean, like, we're almost up on time, but Is there anything interesting too about you and just, you know, that you'd like to share with the audience, things that maybe are outside the purview of Vetsy specifically, but still maybe in the animal kingdom?

That's a really good question. I wouldn't say right off the bat, but I will say, and this is specific to Vetsy, we love working with companies founders, entrepreneurs that are even outside of the pet space. We're looking into partnering with companies in the travel space. We're looking at partnering with companies in the transportation space. So if anyone in the audience or anyone who's watching this loves to work with pets and a nice pet company in Canada, we're always open to conversations.

Yeah. And then, and yeah, so, so how could people get in touch with you more if they just want to kind of follow your journey and updates? You know, of course we're going to be dropping some of this stuff in the chat, all the fun links. But if, where Vetsy's available, how can they get in touch and start utilizing the service?

Definitely. Yeah. So I would say we post a lot of updates on the pet owner side on Instagram. So follow us on Instagram, follow us on Facebook. Our tags are @GoVetsy, G-O-V-E-T-S-I-E. So follow us there. If any of you want to get in touch regarding partnerships or even just have a friendly conversation, feel free to add me on LinkedIn. We also have a partnership section on our website, which is betsy.com. So feel free to go on there and I'll definitely get back to each and every single one of you.

That's awesome. Anything cool outside? Are you going to any interesting events? Again, Collision was just this week over in Toronto. Anything cool on the calendar for you as we get through the summer?

Yeah, that's a great question.

I think, and it might sound boring, But now we're anticipating for a launch, I'm going heads down. I'm going heads down. I'm staying in for the summer. I'm staying in for the year, making sure that the company is going to run smoothly for the rest of the year. I have been thinking about going on a trip, maybe to Cancún later this year, but it's all contingent on how well this launch goes for Betsy. That's, that's definitely my priority.

I hear that. Oh, we actually got a question coming in from the audience. Cindy, What's going on again? Um, I think you might see it at the bottom, but this is a great question. I was, I was thinking about this. I didn't know if it was going to be too deep in the weeds, but, um, sure, compliance. And like, when we're dealing with a lot of health tech startups for humans, you got HIPAA. Uh, is, is there anything like that in the veterinary space, um, with respect to all the things that you have to be compliant on?

Yeah, that's a great question. And, um, so my co-founder, Dr. Steve Barr, he's great with regulations. He's on the board of the Canadian Virtual Care Association. Um, so he'll probably know this question a lot better than I do, but yes, I would say it's very, very similar to health tech. In Canada, there's something called PIPEDA, which is, which is essentially the HIPAA in the US, so it's very similar to that. So yes, our data is protected, it's secured, it's compliant, or PIPEDA compliant and also HIPAA compliant as well. It's an extremely, extremely serious matter. I mean, you know, we're taking We have information and data stored not just from the veterinary side of things, but also from the consumer side of things as well. But to answer your question, yes, there is data compliance standards very similar to health tech.

Interesting. Very interesting on that end. So yeah, again, when you're dealing with pets, you know, there's just different kinds of rights. And I'm sure it's a lot. I'm sure that there is certain— there's some nuances in the American perspective versus the Canadian perspective. So I'm curious how that's going to continue to play out once y'all get into that expansion down here, because I certainly— I'm a big pets guy. My family, I've always had tons of pets throughout my whole life. I grew up with like 3 dogs, 2 cats, turtle, rabbit, all that stuff. My mom, I can't stop. Every time like we lose one dog, we always get like 2 more. It's like that in the house. My mother loves animals. My brother loves animals. I love it. So yeah, any, any final things? I have one more question, but any final things that might be worth sharing with the audience while we have you? I know we're kind of running short on time and I know you got a lot of things still going on to close out the week.

Yeah. So for anyone, for everyone who's listening right now and are rewatching the recording, your first consultation or your first appointment will be free on Betsy. And in order to get that, make sure to follow us on Instagram. We'll be releasing that promo code. But if you guys do want to try us out, your first appointment is completely free. So hopefully you guys will have a very nice experience. And it's only in Canada. It's only in Canada for the time.

Got to clarify.

I got to clarify.

Soon enough though. You want it. Yeah, I can't wait to use it once you get down here. So we're going to be following this. Pretty closely, my man. We will. Um, one last question before, before we let you go for the day. Um, it's a question I ask all of our, uh, guests that come on to the show. Um, so this one too, no different. Um, if there, if there is an aspiring entrepreneur in the audience right now, if there was one thing you could tell them that you wish you knew when you were starting, uh, your company, what would it be?

That's a great question. I have probably a lot to say about this, but, um, I would say the most important lesson that I've learned that I would tell that entrepreneur is make sure, um, that you find the right team. Um, your team, the members that you meet, you're essentially marrying them, um, and you're living through this journey. It's not 1 to 2 years, you're looking at minimum 5 to 10 years, um, at the very minimum. So make sure that You find the right team members to work with. Some entrepreneurs and startups that I've seen have the best ideas, they have the best ideas, best execution, but sometimes the team falls apart and that's it, that's it. So I think I'm very proud of our team. We all get along, we're all family, we all treat each other with respect. So I would tell that entrepreneur that make sure that you're finding the right team members and treat them like family.

Well said. Well said, my friend. Alex Chang, co-founder, CEO of Vetsy. Thank you for joining us again. It's been a joy. Thank you for kicking off season 2 with us. We're going to have many more of these, but I'm glad. And thank you for bringing the pets onto the show too. That was a lovely surprise for the day. Definitely want to see the fr— I love Frenchies. My girlfriend won't let me get one, but I want one so bad.

Should I bring him here?

Oh, I think the audience will like that. Yeah, I'll definitely hang back. Dustin, I'm sure won't mind either. Okay, sorry, waking you up from your slumber, buddy.

Oh, look, hi, buddy. He's not like a normal Frenchie, like he's like 3 times oversized. I have no idea what's going on.

Yeah, but he does have a pretty decent snout. That's all— I mean, that's a big issue, you know, I've seen with the breed specifically, is, you know, they've been— there's an overbreeding that goes and it kind of limits their ability to breathe in general. But yeah, it looks like he's having a fun time.

Oh, he's having a good time.

Oh yeah, he's loving it. Uh, good boy, buddy. Yeah, well, thank you again, Alex. Thank you for— thank you for spending this, uh, Friday with us. Um, This was a fun time and hope to have you back. Tell us again, keep us posted when things come out. We'll come back. We'll bring you back for another episode once we get another release out and share all the good news.

I love it. No, thank you so, so much for having me here. It was an amazing experience and I definitely will come back. Hopefully when we do launch, I'll sort of give you a 3 to 6 month summary of where we're at.

Oh, we'd love that. We'd love that. More to come too. We got plenty more events in Africa. Can't wait to have you for it. But yeah, you have a great one. We'll see you next time. Let's— we'll bring Dustin back up here to round things out for the day on that end. That was great.

I love seeing the dogs. I mean, we got dogs on camera more often.

Yeah. For— I think— who do we have next week? I think it's one of our FI Texas Anders. You have to bring your pets on stage, man. It's a high bar to set.

Yes, it is. Focal Point with Anders next week. So I don't know if he's a pet guy or not.

Global Startup Report and Pets. Yeah, featuring— and it's really the pets, it ain't even us on that end. I'm surprised I almost didn't plug in my computer. All right, cool.

Okay, well, it's tight. You didn't lose battery, we're still both here. It's, uh, yeah, really quickly, that, uh, time for our kind of closing announcement segment here. And, um, just want to share two things, uh, really quick. One I'll get to, that's Founder X, you mentioned it at the top. But, um, first, for people who are You know, not familiar with Founder Institute, or if you are, they have a cool event coming up next to this coming Tuesday that anybody can join. And so this is going to be— it's actually a new event that we haven't run. We've run a lot of pitch events, a lot of networking events, but this is a slightly different sort of speed pitching format. So it's our online startup idea pitch practice session. There'll be different FI mentors at these virtual tables all around, so you can come and get, you know, friendly feedback from experts on your idea, no matter how early stage it is, if it's just a napkin sketch. So the link there, folks can check out, pause it, type it into the browser, or we'll go back and put it into the chat as well. But that's coming up next week. So please join us if you're interested in getting feedback on your startup idea. And the second one that you mentioned in the introduction, Martín, is sort of our whole season here of Global Startup Report is leading up to Founder X, Basically, this is— we're bringing it back, as you said, in virtual format for the first time here. But this is like just for the FI network. It's sort of our VIP gathering of our mentors, our leaders, our alumni, some enrolled founders I believe will be there as well. And so people will receive like invitations if you're part of the Founder Institute network, and you can learn more about that on the website at founderx.com. So Yeah, that's, those are the closing announcements until folks can come in and join us next week.

Absolutely. And again, if you're liking what you're watching, do what you just did today for all of our audience members. Definitely engage the chat. Make sure you're subscribing to our updates on your channel of preference, be it YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter, or all of them. So you know when we go live every Friday. For the next 6 weeks moving forward, heading all the way up into, of course, Founder X, August 2nd through the 4th. Really looking forward to all of that and bringing the family together in a virtual setting. It's a really cool event. So if you get, as I said, if you're in the FI community, you're a grad, you're in the current programs, we just kicked off here in Texas. We're just in week 3 now, heading into week 3 of the Texas program. So everybody that's enrolled can also attend these kind of stuff. It's going to be all whole bunch of fun. And again, we have tons of events every week all over the world. Definitely tune in. Um, and of course, if you are looking, um, to turn an idea into a company just like our special guest Alex today, Founder Institute is an amazing place to start. So definitely look in, in terms of joining maybe our upcoming fall or winter programs throughout the rest of the year. And, and you too can be like Alex coming up on here, and who knows for season 3. We can learn about what you're up to. But for everybody else out there, again, thank you on behalf of the FI family. We appreciate y'all joining us. We're excited for the next few episodes. Who do we have next week, Dustin? Who do we got?

It's Focal Point.

Yeah.

So it's on channel 9.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Based in Atlanta. Graduated very first pandemic cohort that we had. So similar experience to ours. You're going to learn a lot. About what he's working on. There's some amazing things that in that space, uh, that he's going to be sharing about, um, not in the pet space, definitely for HR, a bunch of other things too. So more to come there. We got some amazing founders, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you all again for joining us. I'm Martin, joined with Dustin.

I'm Dustin. Yeah, thanks everybody for joining.

Great weekend. It's hot as heck outside. I'm trying to keep it, uh, family friendly for the Global Startup port. So I'm gonna go out and brave the heat now, getting out of this air-conditioned Dell office. But otherwise, we'll see y'all next week. I'll be back at my desk at home. Same time, same place. Take care of yourself. Take care of each other. Build the future that we all want to see. Y'all will see.

Have a great weekend. Yeah, find us here next week. Bye, everyone.