Small Door, the OneMedical for pets, launches NYC location

Small Door, a veterinary services membership startup, today announced the grand opening of its NYC location at 15 Seventh Ave. Small Door soft-launched the space in November of 2019.

The vet startup first came onto the scene in April of 2019 with a $3.5 million seed round led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, with participation from Primary Venture Partners and Brand Foundry Ventures. Flatiron Health founders Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg, Warby Parker cofounders Dave Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal, and Sweetgreen founders on Neman, Nic Jammet, and Nat Ru also invested.

The company is taking a fresh approach to veterinary services by offering a membership program, not unlike One Medical.

Part of the problem with vet services is that veterinary practices are often overworked and underpaid. This can translate to long waits for patients, short visits, and a low quality of professional life for veterinarians themselves. Through a membership model, Small Door believes it can give vets more time with their pet patients and decrease wait times considerably for patients and their owners.

The company has also rethought healthcare space itself. For example, the waiting room is spread out and designed with little nooks to keep animals happy and unthreatened by their fellow patients while waiting.

Different membership tiers get users access to different features. For dogs, the base tier ($12/month) offers same or next-day appointments, priority access to specialists, and 24/7 virtual care. The Premium tier ($75/month) offers two annual exams, core vaccinations, an annual blood panel, and other preventative care like deworming, heartworm screening, etc. The Premium Plus Tier ($89/month) offers everything in the premium package alongside a 12-month supply of both flea and tick preventative treatment as well as a 12-month supply of heartworm preventative treatment.

For cats, plans range from $8/month to $74/month with similar offerings.

Small Door was set up as a Public Benefit Corporation, identifying Small Door vets and pets as key stakeholders in the business. Suicide is a growing problem among vets, who often deal with mounting debt, compassion fatigue, difficult hours and even more difficult customers.

Since its soft launch, 55 percent of Small Door customers are millennials and 70 percent of customers are women, according to founder Josh Guttman.

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