London-based serial entrepreneur Junko Sheehan is CEO and founder of Unavetsone of the fastest growing veterinary groups in Europe. Founded four years ago, the group now has over 135 practices in Spain and Portugal. Sheehan and her team look after 1,400 employees, including the clinical teams.
As Japanese immigrants, my parents moved to the United States during the Vietnam War in the early 1970s, at a time when they were thinking about the American dream. My father was a green card holder and was also drafted into the war, but he was rejected because, unbeknownst to him at the time, he had tuberculosis. He then spent 12 months recovering in Japan before returning to the States.
My parents didn’t have many resources or relatives to fall back on, they struggled but settled on Palo Alto, California, in the heart of technology, where they decided to open the first Japanese restaurant on the peninsula that later became known as Silicon Valley.
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I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. My parents were my role models and daily inspiration since I was a child – and basically my first bosses. They worked long hours, lived on the edge for many years worrying about cash flow and payroll. 45 years later, they are still in business, a successful restaurant company catering to Silicon Valley’s elite.
Using the company as a launching pad, they were then able to expand into real estate. That’s where I learned the importance of thinking long-term. Today, people focus on short-term success, but you can’t build a company with that mindset. That consistency, which I learned from my parents, stuck with me from a young age.
While my parents learned real life on their own, I had the advantage of attending Wharton Business School and working in 24/7 investment banking on Wall Street for five years. For any entrepreneur, this was a crucial time to understand the mindset of an investor.
Still, I wasn’t that satisfied. In a world of short-term transactions, something was missing and I didn’t feel like I was building anything.
One of my first clients after leaving investment banking was renowned film director James Cameron and Maria Wilhelm, co-chair of Cameron Global. Over the last 13 years, what started as a client relationship has evolved into more of a collaboration and friendship. They looked not at profit first, but at purpose and value – a refreshing attitude that I have taken to heart throughout our relationship and in everything I do.
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I took that ethos into founding Unavets. People ask how we were able to raise all that money – from zero to $225 million (£180 million) in such a short space of time – and scratch their heads. But success comes after you’ve built something interesting. When we think about how we did that, it was more about what I wanted to do in terms of my value proposition and what we wanted to achieve.
I had previously worked in Spain, where I was tasked with developing a gas station convenience retail strategy that helped us grow our EBITDA from zero to $10 million in three years.
After I left, I looked at the healthcare sector and veterinary medicine stood out as a sector that had the advantage of being healthcare-focused, recession-resistant and highly fragmented. Ultimately, however, it was the people that caught my eye – it is a sector made up of caring and inspirational veterinarians.
Our team brings together economic and veterinary experts, which has enabled us to bring together the issues facing the veterinary sector and better understand and address some of the difficulties facing the industry.
In recent years, there has been some consolidation in the industry, with some large corporations buying up practices. When a veterinarian decides to sell after years of building their independent practice, it is a big decision. The most important aspect is actually helping you change your life after the transaction.
We understand this and part of the reason is because of my parents. When they have to sell their business after running the restaurant for years, there is a huge responsibility of care. This is why it is important that we are a good home for veterinary practices and their teams.
The profile of a veterinarian is considered sensitive, altruistic and empathetic. When faced with difficult challenges, rescuing and treating pets can mean dealing with difficult clients, not getting a good salary or having to perform euthanasia. This sometimes leads to psychological problems.
In January, we launched a mental wellbeing support platform to help all members of our clinical team deal with difficult situations and develop coping mechanisms for them. We are always trying to raise the bar for the profession and make it more sustainable.
The growth of our reputation as a group has also happened faster than we thought, and that is due to our values. We are growing in Spain and Portugal – and currently Unavets is the leader in the Iberian Peninsula with a turnover of around 100 million dollars. At the same time, we are open to expansion in selected regions across Europe.
People think of CEOs as leaders, but I think of them as an overarching organization, not top-down. We had this crazy interview process where everyone interviewed everyone. The core team of our first 30 people had to agree to bring these doers on board. They had to have the right mentality for a growth platform like ours. That first core team of 30 people helped define our culture.
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When you’re asked to grow 100% year-on-year, you have to be fully committed and get on board with things. We ask candidates to complete case studies and multiple interviews. In the beginning, we even asked people to take psychometric tests to see how they react under stress.
We have this great team culture now and have really bonded as a team. That’s because of the high bar for who we let in. It sounds crazy, but it was important. It’s like Navy SEAL training; you want to be with a group of people who can get through the tough times.
