Francisco Del Rio, Diego Silva·November 18, 2024

How 2 Entrepreneurs are Rolling Up a New Market | Francisco Del Rio and Diego Silva Interview

Francisco Del Rio and Diego Silva are co-founders of Latam Vet, a Santiago-based veterinary clinic rollup platform that is pioneering entrepreneurship-through-acquisition in Chile and Latin America. Francisco, a Harvard MBA with a background in corporate finance and BCG consulting, was inspired by Alliance Animal Health classmates and identified Chile's ~2,000 fragmented, paper-based veterinary clinics as a greenfield consolidation opportunity. Diego, a Duke MBA who had just secured his dream job at BetterVet in Boston, left that role to join Francisco as co-founder. Their model: acquire 51-70% stakes in clinics, retain veterinary owners as minority partners, and implement operational improvements (digital records, KPI dashboards, variable compensation, supplier discounts, inventory management). The first acquisition in early 2021 was funded with personal savings and personal loans (no SBA or acquisition debt equivalent exists in Chile), and the first two years were slow because the founders kept their day jobs. After onboarding family office investors in late 2023/early 2024 — via a Delaware C-Corp structure designed to attract international capital — they went full-time and have now completed five acquisitions, with plans to reach 15 clinics by end of 2025 and 100 across Chile, Peru, and Colombia within five years. The episode is notable for its detailed portrait of doing ETA in an immature market with no broker ecosystem, no established deal norms, and a seller population that had never considered selling to an outsider.

Deal facts

multiple: 3-4x (estimated; no formal comps in Chile, benchmarked against US multiples)
financing structure: 50% personal savings, 50% personal loans (from partners); no business acquisition debt available in Chile
notes: First acquisition: 50% stake purchased from one of two veterinary co-owners who wanted to exit; remaining 50% partner stayed. Three original partners (Francisco + 2 university friends); two later departed. Subsequent acquisitions financed via equity from family office investors (late 2023/early 2024). Company incorporated as C-Corp in Delaware to attract US and international investors. Five total acquisitions as of episode date; targeting 15 by end of 2025.

Why this business

Francisco had Harvard MBA classmates who had built Alliance Animal Health (200+ US veterinary clinics) and called them up to learn the model. He researched Chile's veterinary landscape, found the industry growing, fragmented, and completely unconsolidated — no one had done a rollup there. It checked all his boxes: growing industry, proven model abroad, first-mover advantage in Chile. Diego had long dreamed of working in veterinary management, had taken a job at BetterVet in Boston, but joined Francisco when he saw the same opportunity being built in his home country before he could do it himself.

What's working

Digitizing clinics: replacing paper medical records and Excel tracking with veterinary management software and CRM, enabling KPI dashboards (e.g., PowerBI panels) that shift owner mindset to viewing the practice as a business
Variable compensation tied to conversion rates: implementing sales scripts and incentive pay for receptionists to approve surgery budgets improved approval rates by 40% in three months
Economies of scale in purchasing: negotiated preferential pricing with major suppliers and distributors across all clinics
Employee benefits programs: introducing insurance, mental health programs, and discounts at clinics that previously had none, improving retention
Inventory management: reducing near-zero expiration rates on medical supplies by implementing structured inventory tracking
Retaining veterinary owners as minority partners (30-50% stake): aligns incentives, reduces seller resistance, and keeps clinical expertise in place
Brand awareness campaign via veterinary conferences and industry thought leader meetings is accelerating deal flow and compressing negotiation timelines
Delaware C-Corp structure opened access to US and international family office investors, including a Chicago PE partner
Built proprietary CRM tracking all ~2,000 Chilean clinics with contact data, clustering, and acquisition pipeline management

What's hard

First two years were slow because all three original partners kept their day jobs (BCG-level consulting hours) while managing the first clinic on the side, leading to friction with their veterinary partner who expected faster improvements
Cold-calling veterinary owners during COVID lockdowns — rejection was near-universal because selling a small business to an outsider is virtually unheard of in Chile
No broker ecosystem or ETA infrastructure in Chile: no intermediaries, no comps, no established deal norms
Financing is far harder than in the US: Chilean banks will not lend against a startup's cash flows, so the founders had to use personal loans and personal guarantees for the first acquisition
Classic catch-22: need capital to grow, but need scale to attract lenders; had to rely entirely on equity from family offices
Smaller investor base in Chile that is unfamiliar with the search/ETA investment model — had to educate investors on the concept, not just the deal
Competing against at least one other consolidator in Chile now, requiring differentiation on culture and vision rather than price alone
Owners add heavy emotional premium to valuations (sentimental value), requiring patience and reframing to align on rational pricing
Francisco says in retrospect he should have gone full-time earlier rather than playing it too safe by keeping his salaried job

Notable quotes

If you want to do everything as people think you should do it's just like reading a book — I think you should write your own book, and taking decisions that are not rational sometimes, it's how we should live life.

What happens if you go to buy a new car and the owner of the car tells you that the car is worth 30% more because it was his first car — would you pay more? Do you think it's a correct price? And they say of course not. Well, it's the same for your hospital.

We are not acquiring business — we are acquiring minds.

If you ask me now I probably should have done that earlier — sometimes trying to play too safe you just waste time.