software development for vet industry - what are your opinions?

[vetbusiness]

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I'm a software developer and I have some unclear thoughts about opening a business for development of software for vet industry. I would like to receive some opinions from insiders about some specific details of the field that are obvious for anybody who is in, but maybe unclear from outside even during the first couple of years after entering the business.

Do you have something to say?

I have not yet any clear idea about what, when, and how I will do.
Why vet industry?
My grandmother was a doctor, my mother was a chemical engineer, and I always was interested in biology (by now mainly in reading appropriate books/blogs and in biotourism). So when I thought about turning my current activity in software development from freelancing to some real business, I obviously came to the idea that it should be something biotech-related.
I read some professional books in genetics, medicine, and some other fields of biology from time to time. But I have not a professional medical or vet education. I think it will not be required, because I plan to work only in the fields where medical degree is not required and any person with broad background (like me) can explore some specific tasks by reading appropriate materials during a couple of weeks.

Why vet industry, but not medical industry in general?
Because I never liked "genetics/medicine for humans", just because I'm a human.
But genetics/medicine in application to other species of animals (not humans, and not apes) can be explored by me without any emotional approach.

What kind of projects I will look for?
Probably it will be some thing from 3 months up to 2 years length for 3-20 developers etc with budgets from several tens thousands $ up to several millions $.
I don't know exact way how I will search such projects yet. But considering previous freelancing experience and general life experience it should not be a real problem.
The process is the same - lottery+intuition+networking.

So I would like to hear some thoughts from you (as maybe future potential clients or end-users of my future business 🙂 ).
Thank you for reading all this.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Your questions are a bit vague....what type of software are we talking about here? Simple billing and inventory for private clinics or something more along the lines of bioinformatics in the comparative medicine research field?

 

[vetbusiness]

Your questions are a bit vague....what type of software are we talking about here? Simple billing and inventory for private clinics or something more along the lines of bioinformatics in the comparative medicine research field?

Everything.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Everything.

Well....those two areas are extremely different with widely varying front end and back end requirements for their relative software needs (not to mention computing power). If you don't have a target demographic it is hard to point you in the right direction with what your potential user base requires. The needs of a private clinic are completely different from the needs of a bioinformatics lab working with animal models (the latter being where I currently am).

And just as an aside...if you think you're going to be rolling on dough doing ANYTHING in the veterinary industry, think again. Take if from someone who is in it (as a research vet), and someone who is also engaged to a programmer/developer trying to make it in a related field (software dev and mod for bioinformatics/comp med). It's extremely rough, no matter how much networking you do. Just as a caveat. You seem to have a rather....flippant? attitude based on past successes, and I can tell you that the veterinary/comparative medicine industry is an entirely different beast.

E.g. in terms of private single-user type of deal, most clinics are barely scraping by and the last thing on their minds is updating to a fancier software. I don't know who you think it going to be giving you thousands/millions of dollars, but it sure ain't anyone in the veterinary industry. We're struggling to just keep our heads above water. Academic or industry wold be a much better bet, but in today's financial climate even that is a risk.

 

[that redhead]

Seems kind of like you're asking us to come up with a product idea for you...

 

[vetbusiness]

I assume that by target demographics you mean the target market for the business.
Now I can say the following.

I do not plan to develop my own startup products/services with making a lot of financial risk for myself.
I plan to perform on-demand projects AND startup projects where all risks are taken by investor.
And considering that I have not a portfolio and degree in vet industry, my target market in fact is not a part of vet industry or some another industry.
My target market is "people with money and people controlling other businesses".

And the only way to communicate with these people for finding projects will be having some basis consisting of common interests in some fields of biology.
Currently I'm interested in the following fields and regularly read professional literature on these topics:
a) genetic engineering;
b) tropical and extreme medicine;
c) marine biology and oceanology;
d) general zoology and management of wild and zoo populations of exotic animals (including ethology and veterinary medicine);
e) bioinformatics;
d) scientific illustration.

So I plan to search somehow people on the basis of these interests. And probably my first projects will be somehow related to these fields.
Veterinary industry intersects rather well with all listed topics as I understand.
Although my real work will be probably much more prosaic then general titles of these directions of my interests.

At the same time I have real experience of developing "standard" business software for different industries.
So such experience will be applicable too.

Generally I think my strategy will consist of the following:
a) to target people from vetindustry and find projects in this field;
b) and at the same time to have a basis of developing "standard" business software.

Having as target only the item B will distribute my communication/personal marketing efforts too widely.
So I will not be able to reach anything.
And also I'm not a "generic manager" by my personal image and lifestyle.
So playing on a "generic market" will not bring me much profit.
I need to concentrate my efforts at some science-related field, as I explained above.

 

[vetbusiness]

Seems kind of like you're asking us to come up with a product idea for you...

No. As I explained in my answer for another user, I do not plan to develop my own startups.

In this topic I'm searching some contradictions in my thoughts or insuperable obstacles that may look obvious for insiders.
But will not be noticeable by me even after 1-2 years of working in the industry.
(I had similar experience of entering different fields and finding that there is something that breaks all my plans completely.)

So here I'm trying to express all thoughts rotating in my head, just to give for you an opportunity to tell me "hey, you are completely wrong here... everything is done in an absolutely different way!"

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

No. As I explained in my answer for another user, I do not plan to develop my own startups.

In this topic I'm searching some contradictions in my thoughts or insuperable obstacles that may look obvious for insiders.
But will not be noticeable by me even after 1-2 years of working in the industry.
(I had similar experience of entering different fields and finding that there is something that breaks all my plans completely.)

So here I'm trying to express all thoughts rotating in my head, just to give for you an opportunity to tell me "hey, you are completely wrong here... everything is done in an absolutely different way!"

The issue is, you aren't really explaining what your thoughts are. You say you are interested in software development for the veterinary industry, and that's basically it.

With such a vague interest, the best I can tell you as an "insider" in the industry is that the industry does not have a lot of money right now and opportunities for growth are very small, especially in the tech side of things (unless you decide to go more heavily bioinformatics/statistics).

If your target is "people with money and people controlling other businesses" the private veterinary industry is a bad, bad choice. If your target is such that "the investor will take all the risk" - no clinic or hospital will do that for you. They have enough risk as it it.

You will have much better luck in the genetics or computational biology spheres, which interact with veterinary medicine but have more disposable income (although not much more given the state of NIH funds).

If you have no portfolio in the bio world, you will need to start one before you can even get your foot in the door. They want people with previous experience with (and modifying, if it is open-source) the products they use. Hell, my fiance has 5+ years experience specifically using and modifying various bioinformatics tools and software and even he is having trouble breaking in.

No one will give you money unless you can show you have background in that area - this is different than the generic software for businesses model, where they are very basic and interchangeable. Software development for biological sciences is a very different entity that has a chip on its shoulder - there is a lot of "exclusiveness" - they don't care if you have done business or finance software, that means nothing to them. They want to see at least a few years of experience with tools in the field - i.e. predictive modeling using differential equations, visualization software, high thoroughput screening and management of data, etc.

I suppose the above would count as telling you about an obstacle that may not be apparent to someone not in the business. So that is where I would start.

 

[vetbusiness]

Probably you understood the word "veterinary industry" in a too narrow sense (like performing medical services for dogs+cats etc.).

By the word "vet industry" I meant much more wide field that includes genetics for vets, bioinformatics for vets etc.
It is also included in my commercial interests.

About my thoughts.
In fact they are rather simple:
a) to read professional literature and journals on the topics I listed above;
b) to live my life and communicate with more and more people by "playing networking lottery" and trying to find projects in the fields that correlate somehow with my interests mentioned in the item A above;
c) to do the first job in the field and get the first money.

It is the only way that I see for myself, because currently I have not
- any bio degree
- any bio portfolio
- any contact in the industry on CEO/investor level.

You may ask - so why they should choose me (a person with no experience and no degree in this field)?
The answer is simple: ideal developers with ideal background are found by ideal clients/investors and perform ideal job in ideal timeframes with ideal quality for ideal amount of money in... an ideal world only. Our world is completely non-ideal.
So entering the industry is not simple task, but rather realistic in a short term perspective, as I think.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Probably you understood the word "veterinary industry" in a too narrow sense (like performing medical services for dogs+cats etc.).

By the word "vet industry" I meant much more wide field that includes genetics for vets, bioinformatics for vets etc.
It is also included in my commercial interests.

About my thoughts.
In fact they are rather simple:
a) to read professional literature and journals on the topics I listed above;
b) to live my life and communicate with more and more people by "playing networking lottery" and trying to find projects in the fields that correlate somehow with my interests mentioned in the item A above;
c) to do the first job in the field and get the first money.

It is the only way that I see for myself, because currently I have not
- any bio degree
- any bio portfolio
- any contact in the industry on CEO/investor level.

You may ask - so why they should choose me (a person with no experience and no degree in this field)?
The answer is simple: ideal developers with ideal background are found by ideal clients/investors and perform ideal job in ideal timeframes with ideal quality for ideal amount of money in... an ideal world only. Our world is completely non-ideal.
So entering the industry is not simple task, but rather realistic in a short term perspective, as I think.

I addressed those in my post above. I work in a bioinformatics and computational biology lab that has a 12+ million dollar grant profile and tons of national and international connections, both industrial and academic, so I know what I am talking about. We would never hire or give money to anyone who did not have significant experience in bioinformatics software and open-source modification, no matter what potential project they either wanted to be on or wanted to start.

If you have no portfolio in genetics, bioinformatics, data mining, etc. you need to get experience in the field. Without a degree, that is the only way you will be taken seriously. Reading papers doesn't cut it. You will not be included in projects, let alone find the investors to start them, unless you have a proven track record. That is how the field of computational biology and software development for biological sciences is right now, period. And if you want to break in, you need to start at the bottom before people will even consider financing you or taking you on as an associate. Without a degree or portfolio you are looking at several years before you could be taken seriously.

 

[DVMDream]

😆

:troll:

This is all I can think this of. Mainly because the OP is making zero sense and isn't even sure of what they want.

 

[david594]

I read his post as they are offering services as a project manager. They will build whatever it is you need.