Over the coming weeks ahead of the TechStars Sydney Demo the Future evening on December 8, Startup Daily is profiling the 12 startups and their founders in the 2025 cohort.
We kick things off with AI clinical note taking platform VetNotes.
Startup: VetNotes
Founder: Mitch Sigley
One-liner: AI Scribe for Veterinarians
What’s the problem they’re solving and why does it matter?
“Imagine being a kid with two vets as parents. It sounds awesome, right?” asks Mitch.
“When you go to work with them, you get to cuddle kittens and puppies all day.”
That’s the theory.
“The reality is a little different,” he shares.
“Most nights, my parents came home late. After a full day of consults, they’d spend hours typing up their clinical notes, and doing admin. I know because they’d complain about it. And because they didn’t often make it home for dinner. And on Saturdays they’d go back in to finish writing up.”
On average, veterinarians spend two hours a day manually taking notes and doing admin.
That’s what VetNotes is solving.
What does VetNotes do?
For veterinarians, VetNotes listens to their consultations, automatically takes clinical notes and then inserts them into the Practice Management System. On average it saves vets 6 minutes per consultation, so on busy days, it saves 2 hours of note taking work. Vets can focus on the pet and owner, instead of taking notes.
Most importantly, it gets veterinarians home sooner. So kids like Mitch can see more of mum and dad.
Why did Techstars invest?
“Mitch bootstrapped his business to hundreds of thousands in ARR before we even met him,” said Techstars managing director Christie Jenkins.
“He not only built the product himself, but taught himself the skillset that many founders get stuck on – sales.
“Heidi is one of the fastest growing startups in Australian history and they focus on AI notetaking for human health. So Techstars’ bet on the same type of business but in an adjacent category is a smart one. Vetnotes is trained on 10,000+ pieces of specifically labelled veterinary data – and in true startup fashion Mitch’s parents helped label the data sets – so it’s best-in-class for that vertical.
“As an investor you want to back companies that don’t need your money, but will use it to accelerate growth. We were the very first investor cheque in to Vetnotes, but there’s no doubt we won’t be the last.”
What’s the future of veterinary healthcare?
Vet clinics have immensely diverse and complex operations. Most clinics will complete GP work, radiology, ultrasounds, surgeries, dentistry, and more. All under one roof.
One of the issues is expertise. New vets learn from an apprenticeship model. And each vet clinic operates in a siloed way.
Today, Vetnotes automates clinical note taking. They are already doing that for over 200 clinics.
Next, the product automates all admin using AI. Things like booking appointments, managing billing, and sending reminders for customers. 95% of manual computer based tasks will be automated.
But ultimately?
VetNotes is building the AI intelligence layer for veterinary clinics. Every consultation becomes structured, primary data, laying the groundwork for automation across the entire clinic. Once that data exists, it unlocks benchmarking, predictive insights, and shared learnings across thousands of practices.
A vet in Dubbo could see how peers in Perth manage pancreatitis, or how top clinics keep recheck rates low. Over time, every consult makes the collective smarter.
“My parents used to spend their evenings typing up notes and paperwork,” says Mitch.
“The future we’re building means vets like them finish their work when the consult ends – and every note they take contributes to something bigger. A smarter profession. Better animal care. And more dinners at home.”
What did he learn from Techstars Sydney?
“When faced with a challenge, thinking ‘who’ instead of ‘how’,” says Mitch.
“A high bias for action is a required for any founder, and we’re constantly in ‘get shit done’ mode. But this isn’t always the best approach. Finding someone who has solved your problem in the past, or can solve it now, is a far more effective way to make progress and fast track a learning curve.”
- See Vetnotes and the Techstars startups in action at Demo the Future, Monday December 8, 5-8pm. Details here.
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