Startup profile: Instinct
- Founded by: Caleb Frankel
- Year founded: 2016
- Headquarters: Bucks County, PA
- Sector: Veterinary
- Funding and valuation: $4.17 million
- Key ecosystem partners: Ben Franklin Technology Partners
Your pet’s vet may be in need of a digital upgrade.
Veterinarians have a particularly high rate of mental health strain, and dealing with paper files and clunky, outdated software doesn’t help. Caleb Frankel, founder of Instinct and an emergency room veterinarian by trade himself, knew there had to be a better way.
“This is a company born out of my own frustration,” Frankel told Technical.ly. “Which, as it turns out, is a great way to start a company.”
Instinct is building the software ‘nerve center’ for large specialty veterinary hospitals.
Bucks County-based Instinct is a software company building what Frankel calls the “nerve center” for large specialty veterinary hospitals. Founded in 2016 and officially launched in 2017, the startup has quietly grown into a significant player in veterinary software, serving some of the world’s biggest animal hospitals.
“If we do our job right, it’s sort of like a modern exoskeleton for a veterinarian,” Frankel said. “When you step into your shift and you log into Instinct, it’s like putting on your Iron Man suit.”
With a new software expansion announced this month, Instinct has positioned itself to increase its reach in the coming year.
Paper records and slow processing: A ‘train wreck’ waiting to happen
Frankel, who trained at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, says that pet healthcare lags about 10-20 years behind human healthcare when it comes to digital tools. When he graduated in 2008, many veterinary practices still relied on paper records.
The software that did exist, known as practice information management systems, or PIMS, was originally designed as little more than a cash register and appointment calendar. As hospitals began retrofitting those systems to handle medical records, documentation became slow and inefficient.
“I saw clinicians going from paper to every little thing being 11, 12, 13 clicks,” Frankel said. “I started to see a train wreck coming.”
The technology gap is only part of the pressure veterinarians face. Unlike human healthcare, veterinary medicine operates without a third-party payer system, a reality that adds another layer of stress to already high-stakes work.
“Say what you want about the human health care system,” Frankel said, “but in these large specialty emergency centers where I practice, we can offer the same level of care as the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The problem is there’s no subsidized cost.”
Though veterinarians don’t markup procedures in the same way a third-party healthcare system does, it means they have the added burden of being able to save a pet with a procedure that may be too costly for the owner. Though software alone can’t solve that issue, software that makes the practice run more smoothly is one less challenging thing for vets to deal with.
Rebuilding the platform from the ground up
Instinct rebuilt the old platform from the ground up with clinicians in mind.
Its flagship product, Instinct EMR, functions as a full practice management and electronic medical record system for complex veterinary hospitals that operate more like human ICUs than neighborhood clinics.
Over time, Instinct has grown into a multi-product company with three main pillars: The first is its practice systems business, anchored by Instinct EMR. The second is clinical decision support, most notably Plumb’s, a pharmaceutical reference tool used by veterinarians worldwide. The third is education, through Clinician’s Brief, a long-running, advertiser-supported veterinary journal.
Plumb’s represents a full-circle moment for Frankel. Before founding Instinct, he helped build the Plumb’s app while working at another company in the mid 2010s. In 2024, Instinct acquired that company, bringing Plumb’s and Clinician’s Brief under its own roof.
The combination allows Instinct to embed clinical knowledge directly into workflow. Frankel points to features like drug safety warnings that flag potentially dangerous dosages as an example of how software can quietly support clinicians under pressure.
“We’re the only software to this day in veterinary medicine that has drug safety warnings,” he said.
Technology made by veterinarians
Unlike many of its competitors that are built primarily by technologists, Instinct’s team of around 200 employees includes about 20 veterinarians, alongside pharmacists and other clinical experts.
The company’s growth, Frankel said, has been deliberately understated. Early funding came from friends and family, angels (including veterinary customers who asked to invest after seeing the product) and Ben Franklin Technology Partners. In 2022, the company raised a Series A.
Instinct has largely relied on product-led growth rather than splashy marketing, Frankel said.
The company has also been remote-first since its earliest days, long before the pandemic normalized distributed teams. Today, Instinct employees are spread across more than 40 states and several countries.
Looking ahead, Instinct is betting heavily on artificial intelligence, including Instinct Intelligence, a suite of embedded AI tools designed to automate documentation, surface standards of care and reduce cognitive load during busy shifts.
In December, Instinct announced Instinct EMR for Primary Care, a cloud-based, all-in-one PIMS aimed at busy general veterinary practices. The product bundles built-in Plumb’s decision support, outpatient treatment sheets, automatic charge capture, integrated payments, client communication tools and business analytics, and is accessible to smaller practices.
“We’re just trying to do really good work under the radar,” Frankel said. “But as we grow, it’s nice for veterinarians to hear about what we’re doing, and why.”
