Relief Rover
I built the platform. Five years later, it sold.
Cindy Trice, a relief veterinarian in Bradenton, Florida, had an idea for one place where relief vets could find work, find each other, and find the practices that needed them. Her first attempt at a website couldn’t do what the idea needed. I designed and built the site she launched Relief Rover on, with a job board, member profiles, and a community of its own. Relief Rover grew to more than 4,400 members, and in 2023 Hound, a veterinary workforce company, acquired it.
The homepage, 2018. Cindy's logo came with a tagline, and it became the first line on the site.
Grew to more than 4,400 members, then was acquired by Hound, a veterinary workforce company, in 2023
- Client
- Relief Rover
- Where
- Bradenton, Florida
- Launched
- July 2018
- What I did
- Website design and build, with the job board, member profiles, a searchable directory, and the community
From an idea to an acquisition
The stops along the way, and how far the road went.
Cindy had the idea in 2017, and the site went live in July 2018. The community grew every year after that, and in 2023 Hound bought the company.
A relief vet with an idea
One place for relief vets to find work and each other.
Relief veterinarians fill in at practices when a staff vet is out. They work for themselves, move from clinic to clinic, and find much of their work by word of mouth. Cindy Trice was one of them. In November 2017 she wrote to me, "I'm developing an idea for a web based solution for veterinary practices in need of relief work."
A website builder couldn't do it.
Member profiles were the part it couldn't make.
Her idea was a directory of relief vets that practices across the country could search by location, availability, the animals each vet treats, special skills, and ratings, along with member discounts, a forum, and a blog. She had already tried to build it herself, on a website builder. That site never went live, because it couldn't create profiles for members.
She wanted the site to feel inviting, simple, professional, and energetic. She had a logo in blue and green and asked for help choosing the right shades. Her husband is a photographer, so the site would use his photos instead of stock images. And she pointed to my own site as a model, "Simple, clean, organized."
Cindy signed on in January 2018. That April, an adviser at a veterinary innovation summit told her to test the idea first on a ready-made marketplace platform. She asked me whether to pause, took two days to think it over, and decided to finish the custom build. I'm glad she did.
- 1a profile in a few minutes
- 2a community to be part of
- 3a simple search for practices
Six pages, and one the website builder couldn't make
- Home
- About Us
- Profiles
- Blog
- Forum
- Contact
The website I built
A job board, member profiles, and a community of its own.
I built Relief Rover as a working community, with every part aimed at one of the two people it served: the relief vet looking for work and the practice looking for a vet. The site's main pieces:
The design kept to what Cindy asked for, with clean pages, real photographs, and her blue and green.
A side for relief vets, and a side for practices
Relief vets came to find work and each other. Practices came to find a vet. Each page served one of them, and the job board served both.
Live on July 12, 2018
The site went live on July 12, 2018, and Cindy sent the news to her list the same day. Two days later she was at the AVMA convention in Denver, showing it to vets in person. Within two weeks, members were signing up and practices were posting jobs.
"We've done it! We're live! Relief Rover was built with community and connection at top of mind."
"Our member's area is protected from the public so relief vets can network in a completely private way."
Sign up now for your free membership!Need a site where members sign up, build profiles, and find each other?
Tell me what it needs to do4,400 members, then a sale
A growing community, then an acquisition.
I built the platform, and Relief Rover grew on it. Within two weeks of launch, members were signing up and practices were posting jobs. By the end of year one it had nearly 1,000 members. In 2021 alone, 700 more relief vets joined, and the site averaged more than 100,000 visits a month. By July 2023 the community had passed 4,400 relief vets and techs, and that September, Hound, a veterinary workforce company, bought Relief Rover.
"Hound has acquired Relief Rover, unifying teams, communities, and technology."
The community grew.
4xMembers in year five, against year oneRelief Rover had nearly 1,000 members after its first year on the site. By July 2023 it had more than 4,400, over four times as many.
"Relief Rover had a wonderful 2021. We grew our relief professional membership to over 2,200 nationwide, welcomed 700 new relief veterinarian members, welcomed 50 new relief technician members…"
Relief vets kept joining.
700Relief vets who joined in 2021 aloneIn 2021, relief vets joined from across the country, 50 relief techs joined too, and practices had started paying to post jobs.
The site she launched it on
My part came first. Cindy had an idea, a logo, and a website builder that couldn't do what she needed. I built the site she launched the company on, and I kept building on it as it grew.
"You are an integral part of our success and I will never forget that."
Cindy Trice · Relief Rover, 2022
Building something that has to grow with you?
Tell me about it"Now I have a gorgeous, welcoming website."
"As a brand new solo entrepreneur with an idea and a little stack of cash to see it to fruition, I stumbled upon Josh via a web search.
Google did me a big favor by putting Joshua Paul Design [my original studio name] on the first page. I was immediately drawn to the beautiful design and friendly vibe of his site.
Josh delivered an amazing product on time and on budget. Now I have a gorgeous, welcoming website. Josh has continued to help me grow and offered invaluable advice on the business, customer experience, and ideas for the future. All I can say is WOW. And thanks Josh."
Cindy TriceFounder, Relief RoverNew tools, then a way to earn
What I added in year one, and the plan for paid job posts.
I kept building after launch. That first summer and fall, I added a points system that gave members badges for taking part, a wage calculator for setting a day rate, and a guide to licensing rules in every state.
In 2020, I built a landing page for a new program and added spam protection to the site's forms. That December I wrote the step-by-step plan for charging practices to post jobs, and by April 2021 the paywall was live and Relief Rover had a revenue stream.
Points and badges
Ranks for members, and badges for taking part, each with an animal on it.
State licensing guide
The rules for working as a relief vet, laid out one state at a time.
Paid job posts
One start date, a discount for current practices, and a test run first.
Looking back
Working with Cindy was great. She had so much energy and passion for this idea, and I loved taking her plans and making them real.
When you build something like this, you release it into the world and hope people get it, and hope that relief vets sign up and that practices want to be part of it. Watching it catch on, with more members every year and more practices posting jobs, was very cool. The system we'd dreamed up was actually being used.
For the first few years I was right in the middle of it, working closely with Cindy, and she inspired me. She kept marketing, kept bringing people in, and kept making it better.
When she sold the company in 2023, I was so happy to see her dream come true. Being part of a story like that is satisfying in a way only a startup can be.
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