The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship produces Bootstrapped, a podcast featuring founders, investors and serial entrepreneurs. The podcast is hosted by Elana Fine, Managing Director of the Dingman Center, and Joe Bailey, Associate Research Professor at the Smith School. Each episode brings a different startup story to life with special guests offering advice and lessons learned on topics that range from fundraising and marketing to team formation and customer acquisition.
On this episode of Bootstrapped, we interviewed veterinarian Dr. Mark Olcott, co-founder and CEO of VitusVet. After losing a pet patient because he couldn’t access their medical records on a weekend, Mark started VitusVet to electronically connect pet parents and their care providers to improve the health and safety of all pets. VitusVet capitalizes on the two-sided market of the vet industry by creating a platform that streamlines the customer service experience, keeping pet parents happy and practices in business. While researching his business model, Mark looked to other industries suffering from similarly outdated, paper-driven customer service practices and found some unexpected parallels.
Mark is a native of upstate NY and obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from the State University of New York at Geneseo. He the earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1995 and, in 2013, his MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Mark has been a partner for several years in a multi-doctor small animal practice before moving on to start his own mobile sonography business. More recently, Mark worked as an Emergency Veterinarian at a local referral hospital. He was named by his peers as one of the Top Veterinarians in Northern Virginia, holds multiple patents, and is a published author.
To listen to this episode and gain further insights into the startup world, subscribe to Dingman Bootstrapped on iTunes or download the episodes on the Dingman Center website.
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About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and flex MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, business master’s, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.