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I'm working on a website that lists veterinary practices owned by private equity or large corporations to help people make more informed decisions about where they take their pets. It started as a small passion project after our dog (who was sideswiped by a car) died at the hands of a vet practice recently acquired by private equity. We were billed over $13k for 2 days of care where his diagnosis and the opportunity to treat it was missed, there was zero continuity of care, no medical leadership and predatory billing practices.

The site has become quite a hit and gets thousands of unique visitors each day. https://www.privateequityvet.org/vet-list


That’s a great idea and I wonder if you’d consider including the UK. My vet got taken over and now they keep spamming me with “offers” - so I no longer know if my dog really needs a checkup or not.

Thanks! Actually I did add the UK very recently but this is a good reminder to improve the UI to make it more obvious, if you go to https://www.privateequityvet.org/vet-list/map.html you can toggle between US and UK. I have over 2000 practices listed in the UK.

I hadn’t looked- thanks for this. Indeed my vet is listed.

I'm sorry to hear about your dog. It's a sad story. Thank you for building this web site. I hope it helps people and their pets.

I am curious where is this data sourced from! Thank you for putting this together

It's been a painstaking process of combing consolidator websites (eg. PetVet Care Centers, NVA) for practice names, verifying and adding them to a list over the course of over a year. I now get many people writing in to report practices that aren't on the list - admittedly it's not complete list as practices are still being acquired (although independents are now in the minority) and often the old practice branding is kept and the fact it's PE owned is hidden.

Amazing work!

thank you for fighting the enshitification of American Experience.

I'm looking forward to reading your book! Part of my expose of PE in the veterinary business can be found at https://www.privateequityvet.org


Wish I had your knowledge before writing...

Pages in my book related to how private-equity screwed over the vet industry: 250. 442. 1001.

I think people will be blown away that the company that makes M&Ms owns a ton of vets.


If anyone wants to see how private equity has transformed the veterinary industry check out www.privateequityvet.org/vet-list - over 7000 practices mapped across the US so far. Our dog died at the hands of a recently acquired PE practice :(


Wow, great work. This is the kind of citizen hackery we need in society :)


Why do you think that a tool to help people break the rules is somehow good for society?


It makes rules harder to break? It inspires kids to be knowledgeable because it can be cool? It teaches thinking outside the box? It makes you question your surroundings and not blindly following the rules?


That's a list of bad reasons. Could we get a list of good reasons?


> posts on Hacker News

> is offended by non-conformity


Why do you think breaking rules is automatically bad for society?


Are you a child?


Are you? Because rules are not automatically good. The Nazis had lots of rules too.


lmao this site used to have conversations with serious people and now you're on here encouraging the breaking of laws because the Nazi party existed.


Auricle | Founding Biomechanical Engineer (Neurotech Medical Device) | ONSITE (Mountain View, CA) | Full-time | https://auricle.com

Auricle is developing a next-generation neurostimulation implant to restore hearing and the ability to understand speech in the millions of people who no longer benefit from acoustic amplification with hearing aids but who aren't prepared to take on the risks of a cochlear implant.

We're searching for a full-time engineer to join our founding team. Our device and prototypes are partly mechanical, electrical and software so we'll need someone who can wear multiple hats but is comfortable primarily in the mechanical domain as we execute on early clinical and pre-clinical studies.

Experience with rapid prototyping using 3D printing, CAD and bench models is a must. Experience of medical device development within a quality management system and developing pre-clinical models is highly valued. Bonus points for electrical engineering experience, programming experience (Python/Matlab) and a passion for auditory science. More than anything, we're looking for someone who will be highly motivated to help bring a complex but life changing device to patients.

We're a small team formed out of Stanford and backed by YC (W21), based out of Fogarty Innovation in Mountain View. The role is primarily in-person with very occasional travel to study sites and with some flexibility for hybrid work from time to time.

We're excited to hear from you! francis@auricle.com


Congratulations on the launch, this looks like a super useful product and I'll give it a try. I've been responsible for conducting hundreds of qualitative interviews over zoom in the past and while the insights were very useful, it took me months to execute. Scheduling and no shows were a massive pain and this has the potential to make it almost hands-off.


Thanks for the feedback and for trying it out!


Auricle | Mechanical Engineer, Simulation Engineer | Mountain View, CA / Remote | Full-time & Internship | https://auricle.com

Auricle is a medical device company developing a breakthrough minimally-invasive neurostimulation implant to restore hearing in patients who no longer benefit from hearing aids but aren't prepared to make the jump to a cochlear implant. The company is a spin-out from Stanford and YC-backed. We're looking to fill two roles:

1) Our first full-time mechanical engineer to lead electrode design and surgical implantation. Experience with small-scale medical devices ideal, bonus points for experience with implantable devices. Role will be in-person in the Bay Area.

2) A simulation modeling engineer for a summer internship with potential for full-time role, will consider full-time to start for the right candidate. Experience with 3D modeling and Finite Element Analysis required, bonus points for experience with Sim4Life and/or NEURON. Role can be remote or in-person.

You'll be joining an early team working on a very exciting real-world application with a huge market opportunity ahead. Interested? Please contact Francis, Co-founder & CEO email: francis@auricle.com


Planet Money is looking for people who have had questionable experiences with BNPL providers, I'd take a look if you haven't already: https://www.npr.org/2022/02/10/1079837232/have-you-used-buy-...


So basically reporting, with an agenda and selection bias?


Seems like a perfectly good way to go about it as long as the stories are validated and the companies in question are given a chance to rebut.


That's exactly why Tesla are so good at what they do! I've had VW , BMW and Ford rental cars in the last year and they are literally stuck in the dark ages when it comes to on car entertainment and the things that just work and are very responsive in a Tesla.


Why wouldn’t you just use CarPlay or Android auto?


Are google workspace accounts treated the same? I have several fill me domains hosted with Google duo curious if this behavior tracks over to their paid products


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