A young Cairns entrepreneur is gaining national success after launching an innovative 24/7 telehealth mobile vet app that is saving thousands of dollars for pet owners across Australia.
Cairns local Josh Fidrmuc, 26, launched his Dial A Vet app last month, but has already reached the lofty heights of number one vet care app in Australia and number four on the medical Apple App Store charts, with more than 1000 subscribers.
Dial A Vet provides pet owners with on-demand video consultations with licenced veterinary professionals any time of the day, delivered via a mobile app that is available on both iOS and android platforms.
Pet owners can join as members for unlimited calls anytime and anywhere in Australia, with up to six pets per membership, for a monthly fee.
Josh, who went to St Augustine's College in Cairns, already has more than 250 veterinarians and veterinary nurses across Australia signed up to provide advice via the app, and is on track to reach 2000 subscribed pet owners nationally by March 2023.
He said that the idea for Dial A Vet, which is already a million dollar business, was birthed during COVID's lockdowns last year.
"I had a life-changing idea when I started to wonder why the telehealth concept during lockdown was only for humans," Josh said.
"My best friend rang me one night and said his dog was vomiting and had diarrhea.
"His partner was worried and wanted them to drive to the emergency vet that was 30 minutes away to get an opinion on what was wrong with her.
"When he went to the vet, they were told that it was most likely due to them changing their dog's food and just to monitor the dog and his diet.
"My mate told me he had spent $140 he couldn't afford and waited over an hour for the advice.
"I began to wonder why there wasn't a vet service you could ring and ask for their opinion before bringing the dog to the clinic. That's when I began to plan Dial A Vet."
Josh said he surveyed more than 100 pet owners to gauge their opinion on a 24/7 service where you could speak to a vet in minutes.
"I spent my spare hours looking at the leaders in the market, pain points that pet owners had and what was on offer, and also gauging the opinion of vets," he said.
"I then decided to start planning how I would start and build the mobile app, contacting numerous app companies and pitching the idea to a few start-up incubator programs.
"Most declined after the first meeting. I was told I wouldn't survive as the market was too big for an idea like this, but this only fuelled my ambition because I had spoken to vets and pet owners, and I knew that a service like this would work."
Eventually, Josh found a like-minded app developer and funded the business entirely by himself.
"I even sold my house to withdraw the equity I had in it to help fund the idea," he said.
"Now that the app is created and the interest is validated by over 2000 pet owners on our waiting list, it is giving me more fire to introduce this app to every pet owner in Australia."
Dial A Vet has signed up vets and vet nurses working as self-employed contractors, most working in clinics or who are mobile vets themselves.
"The interest from the veterinary industry has been insane," Josh said. "We have had such a significant amount of interest, and I am truly thankful that they want to help pet owners and support what I am trying to achieve."
All Dial a Vet calls are answered in under a minute, and Josh's aim is to resolve 90 per cent of all pet concerns received from subscribers.
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