Venture Everywhere Podcast: Andrew Luna with Vivian Graves
Venture Everywhere Podcast: Andrew Luna with Vivian Graves
Vivian Graves, founder and CEO of Otis catches up with Andrew Luna, founder and CEO of Hound on episode 28: Unleashed.
Listen on Apple & Spotify!
The host of episode 28 of Venture Everywhere is Vivian Graves, Founder and CEO of Otis, a platform working with vets and vet techs to create a new model of care delivery that both alleviates the burden on the entire pet health ecosystem and is financially sustainable. Vivan chats with Andrew Luna, Founder and CEO of Hound, the leading work platform in veterinary medicine. They’re transforming veterinary job processes, hiring, shift coverage, engagement, retention, and care access. Hound’s innovative software allows vets to work how they want, love their work and care for more pets. Vivian and Andrew discuss the challenges encountered by veterinary professionals and tech's pivotal role in shaping animal care. With a blend of their entrepreneurial experiences — from Vivian’s venture capital insights to founding Otis, and Andrew's journey from veterinary aspirations to technological innovation — they lay out a blueprint for revolutionizing the pet health ecosystem.
In this episode, you will hear:
The severe shortage of veterinarians in the United States and its effects on pet healthcare.
Incorporating modern technologies such as telemedicine to address the gap in pet healthcare.
Barriers to progress in the veterinary industry, including resistance to change and regulatory hurdles.
The importance of community and networking in building a company.
Strategies for engaging both veterinarians and pet owners in the digital space.
Demographic shifts and the increasing number of female professionals in the veterinary field.
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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00 Jenny: Hi, and welcome to the Everywhere podcast. We're a global community of founders and operators who've come together to support the next generation of builders. So the premise of the podcast is just that, founders interviewing other founders about the trials and tribulations of building a company. Hope you enjoy the episode.
00:00:20 Vivian: Hey everyone, I'm Vivian Graves. I'm the founder and CEO of Otis. Otis is a company that is creating a new model of care delivery for pets, and what we do is make access to care more affordable for pet owners, and we also alleviate the burden on the entire pet health ecosystem.
00:00:35 Vivian: I'm here with Andrew Luna, who's the founder and CEO of Hound, which is a venture-backed future of work platform for veterinary medicine. But I'll hand it over to you, Andrew, to just give a little brief intro of yourself and Hound.
00:00:46 Andrew: Hey everyone, I'm Andrew, founder and CEO of Hound. I've worked in the veterinary industry for over a decade, and we're now building a modern future of work platform for veterinary medicine, helping to improve veterinary recruiting, relief, and retention. We work with over 5,000 veterinary practices and have workers nationwide.
00:01:02 Vivian: Cool. I'm very excited to be here with you, Andrew. Prior to starting Otis, I previously worked at a venture capital fund and startup studio. And while I was there at the beginning, I was the only person who had a pet. And so I became the de facto pet expert.
00:01:15 Vivian: So all deals that were pet related, I looked at and eventually when I thought about building my own startup, it really was focused on the pet space. One of the big pain points when I would talk to veterinarians in particular, I would ask them, what's the biggest struggle they had, they would always mention hiring and this big shortage of veterinarians that we have in the US.
00:01:34 Vivian: I'd love to get into that in a few minutes. But before I go into that, I'd love to hear how you even got into entrepreneurship, how you even thought about starting Hound, what led you down this path? And then we can dive into what you guys are doing and how you're building it. But I would love to just start with that background on you and your journey to getting here.
00:01:53 Andrew: When I first started school, I thought I was going to be a veterinarian. Started working in practices and realized that there are a lot of problems in the industry. So I switched my degree to business. I kept working in veterinary practices. And when I was graduating, I actually joined a veterinary practice in Austin, Texas that was looking to open new hospitals. And so I joined to do that.
00:02:13 Andrew: So when I joined, there was one hospital, we grew to four pretty quickly. And it's honestly a job I didn't think I'd have. I had to oversee new hospital launches. So I'd literally go find real estate and design hospitals and launched them. Yeah, it was pretty interesting.
00:02:27 Andrew: It was a mixed bag. And I also oversaw all of our software for the practices and then people. So I was launching new hospitals, making sure we were equipped with the right tools and supporting our teams. That was a really fun experience.
00:02:40 Andrew: After that, I moved to Thailand. I worked with TripAdvisor’s break into software. I've always really enjoyed technology. So I loved that job. It was super fun. I was basically working with restaurants and resorts and we're booking millions of diners and guests at restaurants and resorts throughout Southeast Asia. So that was fun.
00:02:57 Andrew: And then COVID hit and I was in Asia, which was a tough place to be when that happened. So I came back to the States. I was the head of sales for a veterinary software company, actually a software company that we used at the hospitals that I managed. Helped launch North America for them, built up sales, marketing, customer success.
00:03:14 Andrew: And then about a year and a half after that, I went full time on Hound. And after being in this industry for over a decade and working with thousands of hospitals, it was just super clear that the top pain points in veterinary medicine are all around talent, the people and workers of our industry.
00:03:30 Andrew: So we wanted to build a platform to really solve some of those core pain points. And yeah, about two years ago, we went live. We now work with over 5,000 hospitals across the United States to support them with recruiting, relief and retention.
00:03:43 Vivian: Awesome, super cool and really interesting path to get into that. Was there any moment along the way that you ever doubted your choice not to become a veterinarian or was it just very clear once you worked at pet hospital? Like this is not for me or I have a different path to go down.
00:04:00 Andrew: Yeah. I will say we work with a lot of veterinarians today and employers and we see what they're getting paid and what their sign-on bonuses are. And sometimes I feel like I could really enjoy being a vet. Some of those wages are pretty cool, but I always feel like in some second life, it's something I'd like to do.
00:04:15 Andrew: But when I was going to school for it and working in practices, I just felt that there's a lot going on in the industry and a lot of my friends and family were working in the profession and I wanted to make it better. So I feel like my impact in the industry gets to be larger and help more people like me who want to be helping this industry and helping pets.
00:04:33 Andrew: And I just get to do it in a different way instead of being clinical and being in practice and work with the pets. I get to help support the people that do do that. And so I still feel in a way pretty deeply connected to the industry.
00:04:44 Vivian: Totally. That really makes sense. When I was working in Venture and when I was looking into the pet space so deeply, to me, it was very clear that there is a massive issue in terms of the shortage of veterinarians. I'm always surprised that most people outside of the industry don't realize how big that shortage is and just how big the industry is. What I always like to tell people and correct me if my numbers are wrong, but in the human health space, if you look at the amount of people in the US, there's 330 million people and there's about a million doctors that treat those humans.
00:05:14 Vivian: In the pet space, there's 200 million cats and dogs, obviously more pets if you count other species, but there's only 120,000 vets approximately, so there's a massive shortage. That to me has always been such an incredibly large pain point, and it's pretty much a crisis that a lot of people don't realize is happening in the pet world. 70% of households have pets, and so most of us have a pet ourselves and just don't even know what's going on. What would you say in thinking about what you wanted to build?
00:05:46 Vivian: Obviously, that's a massive pain point once you're in the industry, but there's also so many things you probably also saw in terms of SaaS being and technology being very old school and antiquated. Were there any other areas that you thought about building in as well, whether it's software or something else within insurance, anything else within the pet space?
00:06:03 Andrew: We're really focused on work solutions. We definitely have plans to continue to modernize how people work in veterinary medicine. You see things like telehealth pop up and starting to get legs. There's some new legislation that's changing and allowing access to care to be much easier for pet owners. And there's going to be a change and a shift in how care is delivered.
00:06:27 Andrew: So for us, we certainly see opportunities to continue to modernize and evolve how care is delivered and how workers can have flexibility in that delivery of care. So we started with a job platform to connect people to jobs, pretty standard full-time workers.
00:06:43 Andrew: And about six months ago, we acquired a relief platform called Relief Rover, which allows veterinary professionals to pick up relief work. So they could do, for example, coverage for maternity leave, or if there's a practice that is down a vet or a technician, but they want some coverage, they can come and fill shifts.
00:07:00 Andrew: Maybe someone takes vacation or they have the opportunity to flexibly pick up shifts and go work at different practices. So that is one step in that direction of modernizing what that work can look like for the people of veterinary medicine, giving them a little bit more autonomy and flexibility. But I would say there's a lot of opportunities to continue expanding how that care could be delivered and what that work could look like for the people.
00:07:24 Vivian: Are there any challenges that you find that are unique to the veterinary space that people might not expect or might not see from looking at other marketplaces or labor marketplaces, something like an Upwork or something different, like what would you say is different or unique if at all, or if it's quite similar to those other analogous players?
00:07:45 Andrew: Yeah, so we are a platform where workers can sign up, build a profile, look for opportunities, get matched, et cetera, and employers can do the same, post opportunities, search, get matched, et cetera. I'd say that in every industry, you have some things to consider like licensure or credentials. So some states require, for example, technicians to be credentialed. Some states don't. Some of those requirements vary by state. So that one's interesting if you're looking at being a nationwide talent platform, you have to check those boxes and make sure that you're making those details available to the employers and using that information properly to effectively match.
00:08:20 Andrew: I think another important piece of this is that for the most part, the work that's being done is in a physical place. So people aren't working remote for the most part, they're actually going into a hospital. So an interesting piece is there are local networks that we've built. We've also built out nationwide networks and some of those workers are open to relocation. So not only are we building up local networks specifically to serve a specific say city or set of hospitals, but also recognizing that there's opportunities to build out talent wherever they are and create opportunities for relocation.
00:08:53 Andrew: So I would say that, yeah, there's certainly unique challenges in the industry. There's just not enough workers for all the work to be done. So that makes it hard, anyway. And then you have different types of employers that workers want to be aware of. So you have independent practices, you've got small groups, you've got large groups and consolidators, and basically surfacing all of this and making this information clear to the users is really important to us on our platform.
00:09:15 Vivian: You mentioned this is a platform and it's a work marketplace. I assume it's a two-sided marketplace, right? You're going between the veterinarians or the vet techs and the clinics or hospitals, right?
00:09:27 Andrew: Yeah, so you have the workers, which we call the big five. It's anybody who works in a hospital. So veterinarians, technicians, managers, receptionists, assistants. And then on the other side, you have employers. Those employers can look different. Again, you can have a single doctor, mom and pop practice. You can have a mixed animal practice, et cetera. So there's many different types of employers, but yes, it's a two sided marketplace connecting workers to employers.
00:09:51 Vivian: At Otis, we have similar challenges in the sense that we're delivering care to pets via telemedicine. So finding new ways to get pet owners the care they need on a whole spectrum of care. So if you can't necessarily, let's say afford to go into a vet clinic or get to a vet clinic because your dog is too large, we have created a platform to then deliver that care to your pet for certain conditions that can be very easily treated via telemedicine.
00:10:17 Vivian: But to your point, in terms of the shortage of workers, part of what we're trying to do is find ways where one single vet can see more patients and really optimize their time. Because what we can't do overall in this industry, you or I, is increase the number of vets that are currently in the field. And so that I think is definitely a shared constraint that resonates with me and is part of the mission of why we even wanted to build Otis ourselves as well. And so I find that interesting because it's two different ways to look at a similar problem with different outcomes, but still getting at how can we really solve this core existential issue that's happening in the broader vet ecosystem?
00:10:56 Andrew: Yeah, so I wish that we could just snap our fingers and create a bunch more workers. But not only do we have a challenge with not having enough people in our profession, we're losing people out of our profession quite a lot. And so that was another piece of the platform that we built is yes, we've built tools to help people find work in this profession.
00:11:14 Andrew: We've also built tools to help them stay engaged and retained in this profession. The average amount of time that a credential technician is staying in industry is about five years before they leave and they go and do something else. Maybe they work retail, maybe they go work for a large distributor or something and still in the industry, but no longer directly delivering care.
00:11:33 Andrew: And so what we want to be able to do is, there's a leaky bucket and it doesn't matter how much you pop into that leaky bucket. If you have holes in the bucket, it's going to continue to leak. So we wanted to also provide solutions to the industry, to fill those holes, make this profession a bit more sustainable and retain people in the industry for longer and help them, like you mentioned, provide more care.
00:11:56 Andrew: People who are happy in their work are more productive and are able to do more and stick around for longer. So we're trying to build tools that can help the people of vet med really love their work, stay in it, have flexibility. And similar to you, help people more effectively or more efficiently provide care to pets.
00:12:13 Vivian: Totally. And I don't know if it's a misconception, but something else that I've found really surprises people to learn about the vet industry that most people aren't aware of is just how high the burnout rate is for this profession. Most people don't realize that the veterinary profession actually, unfortunately, has the highest suicide rate of any industry in the US.
00:12:36 Vivian: A lot of that from studies and from what I've heard talking to veterinarians is often because of incredible amount of pressure that the veterinarians feel either financially, they come out of veterinary school with high amounts of debt, the amount that they make on an annual basis is not as high as you would expect from, for example, a human health doctor.
00:12:55 Vivian: And then they also have the added pressure of treating pets on a daily basis where a lot of times the pet owners can't afford to always give them the life-saving care that they might need. And so I think that's something that I wish there was more awareness around is just how much pressure there is on people in this profession.
00:13:13 Vivian: And it doesn't surprise me. I think it's very unfortunate and very sad, like you said, that there's people that are leaving the profession and going to totally different jobs. And it is very unfortunate and really just highlights the fact that there needs to be change and there need to be new solutions sooner rather than later, because this problem is always gonna get worse.
00:13:31 Vivian: I always tell people, I can't increase the number of vets in the field quickly and I also can't decrease the number of pets that we have in the US. So it's like, what solutions can we make to work around that, to find something that works for everyone and alleviates this pressure on the whole ecosystem?
00:13:49 Andrew: 100 percent. I don't think pet ownership is slowing down at all. So that pressure is just growing and if the workforce doesn’t catch up, then we need to find ways to make them more efficient, add more tools, create automation, to really solve these problems.
00:14:04 Vivian: Exactly. I find that a lot of innovation is necessary to solve for this. I've found in our field, unfortunately, part of the challenges that we face is, like you mentioned, the telemedicine laws in each state are quite different. Most people are also surprised to find that telemedicine is not legal for pets in every single state.
00:14:23 Vivian: And I'm a big proponent of changing these laws to make it so that more vets can see more pets, but also so that there's new ways that can be created like Otis where care doesn't have to be binary. You come to the clinic and you get seen by a vet. What other ways can we accommodate for or create and leverage the use of technology so that pets can get high quality care in a way that doesn't make it impossible for the amount of veterinarians we have to see these pets?
00:14:51 Vivian: I'd be curious though, in terms of your own thoughts or opinions, like in my space, part of the constraints that we deal with are these telemedicine laws. Is there anything in your landscape with Hound that you've found is either a challenge you guys have to face or work around? Or what would you say is the biggest thing that you guys struggle with in trying to get to this mission that you have at Hound?
00:15:13 Andrew: Yes, there's really no legislation that's restricting or constricting on us. We're not having any of those challenges that I'm seeing for telehealth providers, for example. I would say that one of the biggest challenges when it comes to trying to improve employee engagement and satisfaction in the industry is just that there's this kind of old guard mentality.
00:15:31 Andrew: Things have been this way, we're going to keep doing it this way. And our industry is notoriously slow to change, slow to adopt technology, slow to adopt innovation, resistant or hesitant. Like, why would you not want telehealth?
00:15:45 Andrew: Why would you not want for pets and pet owners to be able to access advice of a veterinarian who can very easily help you remotely? There are some things in this industry that are certainly frustrating and self-inflicted when we just get in our own way of progress. So sometimes it feels that we have challenges just with an older mindset and reluctance to adopt change and innovation that is so sorely needed and very clearly needed by our profession.
00:16:14 Andrew: So in our case, sadly and unfortunately, you can't point to some legislation or lack of technological innovation or whatever it is. It's that we need the critical mass to adopt a new mindset of how we should be caring for teams, delivering care, and modernizing the veterinary industry.
00:16:33 Vivian: Yeah, that's a great point. And when you mentioned the critical mass, one thing that came to my mind is the fact that in the veterinary industry, it's the leading industry in terms of the industry that's had the biggest gender shift in the past 20 years.
00:16:47 Vivian: So for context, for everyone out there, 20 years ago, if you looked at people graduating from vet school, the workforce was pretty much 80% men graduating from veterinary school becoming veterinarians. Fast forward 20 years later, now it's much, much more dominated by women where 70, 80% of veterinary school graduates are women.
00:17:09 Vivian: And so with that, a lot of what that demographic or that incoming class is like is very different than what the old guard was like as well, whether it's gender or whether it's what they expect from their job. How would you say if at all you've seen the newer generation shift what they're expecting or whether their mindset has shifted with what they're looking for, how has that impacted in your perspective the veterinary field and what you guys are doing?
00:17:36 Andrew: Yeah, I think one that you're right, there's certainly a discrepancy between how veterinary medicine has been for the past 50 years and how it feels that it's changing now. There's certainly a generational shift in the profession. I mean, you can see it, feel it, hear it, go look on social media, go be a part of any online community and you start to see that pretty clearly.
00:17:58 Andrew: I think that it is creating challenges for the newer workforce that are entering work that is outdated. The technology be older today living in 2024 expecting modern experiences in every facet of our lives. So imagine being a modern millennial, Gen Z whomever and going to work.
00:18:22 Andrew: And there's a clear discrepancy between your values and the values that existed before and the type of technology that we use every single day. We have all these apps in our pockets and we're constantly on our computers and using these modern tools. And then maybe go into a veterinary hospital and they're using super outdated on-premise solutions.
00:18:41 Andrew: For example, some people are still using paper charts. And so that's just one example of the discrepancy between what's expected of the modern workforce and what they're experiencing there in the workplace.
00:18:52 Vivian: I never thought about that too from the perspective of a younger generation and their experiences with technology and then you get to a vet practice. Some of them have, like you said, paper and pen or they're using software that is incredibly outdated and probably looks nothing like the software we use on a daily basis. When I had looked in different areas in the pet space, I had actually done quite a lot of research in the field that you're working on, which is placement for veterinary jobs, whether it's relief work, so per diem, hourly, daily work, et cetera.
00:19:25 Vivian: And what I found was that a lot of people that I had spoken to, at least we're finding these jobs via just friends or on Facebook or via cold outreach, and it was a very outdated system. How have you leveraged technology to make that a more efficient process so that people can find better employment or get more fulfillment or whatever it is that they're looking for?
00:19:46 Andrew: Yeah, we've created a platform that, again, just really surfaces the information that people care about and want to see when they're looking at opportunities. If you go and look at a lot of the incumbent platforms for finding work, it's like walls and walls of text. And nobody wants to look at that when they're looking for jobs. So we've just made sure the platform is modern and beautiful. Think photos and clear descriptions and compensation and benefits shown before a huge six paragraph job description.
00:20:15 Andrew: We've made it easy for you to create a profile and stand out. We've made it easy to match nationwide. We've made it easy to chat on platform. And we just pulled together the experience that you'd expect from a modern technology and put it into a veterinary job and shift to search, which unfortunately for a long time, the industry has just used white labeled third party solutions, which haven't worked for our profession or made it a great experience for the people of vet med.
00:20:41 Andrew: So we've done a lot of focusing on those UX/UI components in our product. We've also really focused on building our business through community. So over half of our workers on the platform actually joined on referral. So it made it really easy and we actually incentivize people to pull people into the network, refer your friends, bring your colleagues and we've made it a community led effort to build this platform together. We take all the feedback that we can from users and continuously build the product that they're telling us that they want us to build.
00:21:11 Vivian: Well, congrats on 50% user led growth or referral based growth. That's pretty massive and is really a goal when any founder sets out to make a product. It's something that not only do people want to use, but they also want to refer their friends to. I think a lot of times in tech people talk about community and they talk about community building and using that as a tool for growth. But I would love to know tactically, what have you guys done to build that community?
00:21:37 Andrew: I will say the product that we are bringing to market is unique. It is a marketplace business model. It's actually, subscription, but it is something that people really, really care about. People in this industry all very much care about loving their work, healthier culture It's something that resonates with everybody. You could look at other SaaS in the space. Maybe it's a PIMS, maybe it's productivity software.
00:22:02 Andrew: And just honestly, you have a harder time getting people jazzed about a productivity software. It's not something that the people of Vet Med just inherently talk about. So one thing that was on our side is that we're addressing the pain point in veterinary medicine that all of us as humans just feel and want to have improved. And we're able to build a brand and a mission and a vision all around supporting each other, supporting people, building a healthier culture, a better future for veterinary medicine. And that all resonated.
00:22:29 Andrew: So with that positioning and something that people could actually get excited about, then we set out and made sure that we were going to build this company through community and then less, much less so through cold calling and sequencing and just being down doors to try to get people aware of our technology.
00:22:45 Andrew: So we've partnered with professional organizations, we've partnered with affinity organizations, we have a bunch of ambassadors on social media, we work with student groups, any community that wants to be a part of what we're doing, we have welcomed to the community very, very easily. And we all do all kinds of things to bring the community together.
00:23:04 Andrew: We do CE webinars when we go to the large veterinary conferences, we host mixers and hundreds of people come to that. And we've just found great ways to bring the people together in the industry. And again, when they get to know us and they use our technology, or they know that they've got a friend looking for a job, it becomes much easier when you've established your brand in that way for them to refer and recommend that people use your technology. So we've executed on that pretty well.
00:23:31 Andrew: Again, I think we're fortunate to have some interesting technology dynamics, we’re a work platform, if you have workers on a platform, employers come, if you have employers on a platform, workers come. So we've been able to leverage some of those marketplace dynamics, but from the very beginning, I've been super focused on doing it through community.
00:23:48 Vivian: I personally haven't hit the veterinary conference scene yet. So when I do, you'll have to invite me to these mixers with the -- sounds pretty good. So you'll have to extend me an invite. You touch on a good point though, which is this need to really build around the people that you are serving and reaching, them where they're at, meeting them where they're at.
00:24:09 Vivian: You had obviously worked in the veterinary industry, both at a clinic and then also on the software side. When you thought about building Hound, were there any people that you started partnering with from the very beginning? Or what were the early efforts you made to really get entrenched into this community?
00:24:24 Vivian: Because sometimes if you're not a veterinarian, it can be hard to break into a veterinary group without that prior background, or at least that's been my experience. When I started working on Otis before I had a veterinary partner to really join me as the veterinary side, right?
00:24:43 Andrew: Yeah, so we actually did before we launched our company. We did start a Slack community. It's no longer around, which is really just there to bring together bright minds of veterinary medicine, people with great ideas on how to run practices or mentoring people on getting into the industry or finding jobs and we just put together a bunch of resources before we were ever even a company.
00:25:04 Andrew: And from that, we were able to establish ourselves, establish our brand. And then we connected with a lot of industry leaders, key opinion leaders, And again, this is something that the industry very sorely needs and that people are excited about. So we were able to pretty quickly put together ambassador programs, communities.
00:25:22 Andrew: And when we went live, it was a great feeling. You have a secure job, you leave it, you make the jump as a founder. It's scary, but it was great. You know, in our first quarter, we hit thousand hospitals on the platform. I think we had a few thousand workers already on the platform.
00:25:36 Andrew: And that wouldn't have been possible if we didn't invest in that community first and helping ourselves establish this mission and vision that people are very aligned to in our industry. So I think you're right. A lot of companies do talk about community and that's maybe an afterthought. But for us, it was something that we started on before we even had our first piece of code back written.
00:25:56 Vivian: Yeah, that's a great point. And I think that's part of the question I had to you was, how do you start in the very beginning? Because people do talk about community is so important to build community, but it's kind of chicken or the egg where it's important to have community, but it's very hard to build a community when there's one or two people in there. That doesn't really feel like a community.
00:26:12 Vivian: So knowing that the Slack channel worked for you guys is super interesting. And I always think about with Otis, for both our vets, but also for our pet owners, what's the best way to reach them? Is it through Facebook? Is it through a site group? A lot of times the channel changes the type of user that you get on the other end. So that was quite interesting to hear about.
00:26:33 Vivian: I’d love to transition over more to the segment of a speed round at the end of this podcast. And so I just want to ask you a few questions that are a little bit more personal, a little more fun. The first one being what is your superpower or the thing that you're most known for?
00:26:49 Andrew: Okay, so this one was funny. I actually asked my team about this today because I didn't know a great answer for it. And they came up with two, one of which is that I tend to just be very lucky and have what they call cosmic timing. I don't know why, but I tend to be very fortunate and be in situations at the right place at the right time. I tend to meet people at the right place at the right time. And it's been pretty awesome to see great people join our team.
00:27:13 Andrew: Great partnership opportunities for the company and they've all been very organic. So people tend to say that I just have this weird cosmic timing with things. I also recently moved to Mexico City and I love eating the street food and it doesn't make me sick. So my Mexican team members say that my superpower is that I can eat all the Mexican street food without getting sick.
00:27:33 Vivian: That is the real superpower. I have to say, but on the first one, I think it's funny because I'm not a big TikToker at all, but I don't know if you've heard of this, but there's actually a trend or a theory on TikTok called the lucky girl syndrome. I think it's just, it's girl, but it's probably gender neutral. But essentially I, have you ever heard of that?
00:27:51 Andrew: No, I haven’t.
00:27:52 Vivian: Essentially it's very similar to what you're saying, but it's this feeling of knowing and feeling that you're lucky and that good things will come and it works both ways where having that feeling attracts good opportunities and opens certain doors for you to actually take those opportunities and just puts you in the right place at the right time. So you could be having some lucky girl syndrome.
00:28:11 Vivian: I think you'll have to look at that. I always say that about myself as well. So it's funny that you mentioned that. The other question I have is if you could live anywhere in the world for one year, where would it be? But it sounds like you've already found that place with Mexico City, right?
00:28:23 Andrew: Yes, I'm loving being in Mexico. I did live in Thailand for a bit and I miss it every day. So I lived in Phuket, it's honeymoon destination. I worked with TripAdvisor, selling software to restaurants. It was the easiest job of my life. I got to snorkel every single day and be in the sun and I just, I miss it every day. So if I could go for a year anywhere, it'd probably be back to Phuket.
00:28:43 Vivian: Yeah. And it sounds like you probably got free food if you're selling to restaurants as well, right?
00:28:48 Andrew: Every meeting was free food, free drinks and ocean views.
00:28:51 Vivian: Not conducive to doing a lot of work probably, but I have to say that mine would be Mexico City. So you've currently taken my option. Is there a book that you've been reading or a podcast that you've been enjoying? Aside from the Everywhere Ventures podcast that I'm sure is number one for you.
00:29:05 Andrew: I usually am reading a book. I'm not right now. I have a few of my favorites behind me here in office, but yeah, this podcast was just recommended to me. I think it's a popular one. It's called Stuff You Should Know. I haven't started listening to it yet, but I'm about to get on it.
00:29:19 Vivian: Okay, cool. Hopefully we'll both learn some stuff we should know. The book I've been reading is The Surrender Experiment, which TLDR is just take opportunities and stop saying no to things. So I recommend that one. Any favorite productivity hacks?
00:29:33 Andrew: I think all of us have a time of day when we're most productive or creative. And I found what that time it is for me and I time block it. So nobody can book any time with me during those super productive hours. So I time block and block myself off for deep work during that specific time for myself. And it allows me to get a lot of work done in a short period of time.
00:29:56 Andrew: And then I always start my day just trying to look at what are the things that are annoying me and that I'm trying to procrastinate on and try to knock those out that morning. So yeah, time blocking. I like making sure I have time for deep work in my most creative or productive hour and then finding those things that are annoying and just getting rid of them as fast as I can in the morning.
00:30:15 Vivian: Cool, good tips. Have you ever read the book, Why We Sleep?
00:30:18 Andrew: No, why do we sleep?
00:30:20 Vivian: I highly recommend, but basically one of the things they say is that, we're wired to either be morning people or night people and you can't really change that. So if you're a morning person, you're very productive in the morning, you need to revolve your schedule around that. If you're a night person, you need to do that.
00:30:34 Vivian: But unfortunately, I find that I'm most productive at like 11/12 PM. So I can't really take your advice or I would never sleep. But good to know. And then my last question for you is where can listeners find you or learn more, follow your journey.
00:30:49 Andrew: I'm on LinkedIn. And then if you want to learn more about Hound, you can go to hound.vet.
00:30:53 Vivian: Awesome, cool. Well, I am on Instagram through our Otis account. And then also we have otispet.co if you wanna sign up and learn more about us, but that's it. Well, thank you, Andrew, for your time. I had a really great conversation. It's always nice to talk to someone who is in the pet space and has so many shared goals and missions. And I'm sure this will be one of many future conversations we have.
00:31:17 Andrew: Awesome, great to meet you, Vivian, and I'll see you in Mexico City soon.
00:31:20 Vivian: Perfect. See you soon.
00:31:23 Scott Harley: Thanks for joining us and hope you enjoyed today's episode. For those of you listening, you might also be interested to learn more about Everywhere. We're a first-check pre-seed fund that does exactly that, invests everywhere. We're a community of 500 founders and operators, and we've invested in over 250 companies around the globe. Find us at our website, Everywhere.VC, on LinkedIn, and through our regular founder spotlights on Substack. Be sure to subscribe, and we'll catch you on the next episode.