On a holiday weekend while on vacation, Mark Bordo couldn’t get his 17-year-old Cockapoo to the vet. Clinics were booked, and that left him frustrated. That personal experience became the spark for Vetster, a telehealth platform now helping thousands of pet owners connect with licensed veterinarians in under 30 minutes.
Bordo, a lifelong pet owner and seasoned tech founder, saw what others hadn’t yet: pandemic-era pet adoption was rising fast, but veterinary capacity wasn’t keeping up. With clinics stretched thin, Vetster offered an alternative: virtual consults for non-emergency issues like behavioral concerns, post-op questions, or food-related advice. “Those are all great telemedicine questions,” he said in an interview.
The platform isn’t designed to replace in-person care. Instead, Bordo describes it as a pressure valve. “Hundreds of conditions can be diagnosed online and you can get prescriptions right through Vetster,” he said. A 2022 survey commissioned by Vetster found many UK vets so overwhelmed they were considering leaving the profession altogether.
Backed by $30 million in Series B funding, Vetster has expanded into the UK, where more than half of clinics report being at capacity. The company aims to ease bottlenecks and increase flexibility for vets, especially in rural or underserved areas.
For Bordo, who previously founded and sold CanadaStays to Expedia, Vetster is more than a platform. It ultimately helps to “improve the health outcomes of their pet and help ensure owners can care for their animals,” he said.
What started as one missed appointment has become a company rethinking access to veterinary care. At its center is Bordo—a founder who turned a moment of frustration into a mission-driven solution shaped by empathy and innovation.
