Membership FAQ

What Is VANE?

VANE is a community of animal health angel investors, composed of clinical and commercial leaders — primarily veterinarians—who help drive innovation forward through purposeful capital, strategic networking, and expert guidance. For members, VANE provides a trusted platform to invest in innovations that matter, connect with like-minded professionals, and shape the future of veterinary care through shared expertise and impact-driven engagement. For founders, VANE offers more than funding: it’s a network of clinical and commercial experts who understand the realities of building value in animal health and actively guide early-stage companies toward meaningful exits through licensing, acquisition, or strategic partnerships.

What is VANE’s Vision and Mission?

Vision: VANE will be the leading angel investing group promoting and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in veterinary medicine and animal health

Mission: VANE provides Direction, Connection, and Funding for the animal health industry overall, and specifically for early-stage ventures and VANE members.

Direction through support of innovation and entrepreneurship that will disrupt the marketplace and improve conditions for pets, pet parents, veterinary practices, and clinical teams. Our members gain a unique perspective on the leading edge of our industry, the opportunity to shape its direction by supporting specific ventures and help other animal health professionals develop as angel investors.
Connection through our relationships with each other and with new and established organizations, providing for ongoing professional development and discovery of new opportunities.
Funding through direct investment in early-stage ventures, providing support for these ventures and their entrepreneur founders, and generating meaningful investment returns for members.

What is VANE’s strategy, and who sets it?

We were formed by the four founders (Cassell, Glassman, Gordon, Rodi). The concepts behind VANE emerged from a series of conversations between the founders, who had each achieved various successful business exits over the years. They shared a goal to maintain and grow connections with other entrepreneurs who had similar interests and a desire to support others in the field. At the same time, the founders were driven by the hope of contributing to innovation and the overall well-being of the animal health industry. The founders conceived the idea for VANE in late 2020. Subsequently, they developed it into a concept that could be socialized through close professional connections in early 2021, with the intention of obtaining feedback. This feedback was extremely positive and VANE was launched in March of 2021, as a group of aligned animal health professionals interested in supporting early-stage animal health businesses.

Since then, VANE has experienced rapid growth in terms of member numbers and t he number o f ventures seeking funding.

What is VANE’s legal entity?

We are set up as a for-profit LLC, as a mechanism to handle administrative and logistical expenses. With the exception of one administrative salary and a stipend for the CEO, all who contribute their efforts are volunteers.

Since then, VANE has experienced rapid growth in terms of member numbers and t he number o f ventures seeking funding.

What is the profile of VANE members?

Accredited Investors with an interest in making “active investments” that provide an opportunity to advise, mentor, or guide an entity, along with investing directly.
Animal health leaders and/or experienced veterinary entrepreneurs with the capacity and flexibility to participate actively.
Most of the current members are veterinarians but members come from all segments of the animal health ecosystem

What is the communication format and cadence?

We utilize Dealum, a purpose-built platform that supports angel investing group functions, including deal flow, group communications, and scheduling.
We hold virtual meetings usually on Tuesday through Thursday, between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Our schedule of virtual meetings is constantly evolving, but we typically host virtual pitch nights on the second Wednesday of each month and virtual member meetings (quarterly at present).
We’ve had four annual conferences: one virtual and three in-person. In 2026, we will host our annual conference at the Rosen Centre on January 15th-16th, just before the VMX conference.
We also hold informal meetups at major conferences such as VMX and WVC.
The calendar of meetings and events is maintained in Dealum, and you can synchronize your personal calendar to the VANE calendar in Dealum.

What are some of the advantages of VANE membership?

Please see the document Member Benefits Statement.

Who determines eligibility for members?

Members are identified through relationships in the VANE network and self-identify and apply as a result of our marketing. Membership applications available on our website (vane.vet) are reviewed and approved by the Executive Committee and evaluated based on both qualification (i.e. animal health experience and being an accredited investor) as well as perceived fit with VANE’s values and culture.

What information are members required to disclose to VANE, and what are the duties or obligations of the members?

See Membership Agreement and Code of Conduct.

What is the term of membership, and what are the required costs for member participation?

For 2026, the costs include a one-time initiation fee of $1,000.00 and an annual membership fee of $1750.00 (pro-rated if members join partway through the calendar year). These fees are due and payable upon signing the membership agreement. Our membership term is annual and is based on a calendar year.

What are the criteria for removing members?

We trust that members will self-select and withdraw if their experience isn’t fulfilling. Failure to comply with the Code of Conduct in the Membership Agreement can also result in member removal.

How are deals sourced?

Deals are sourced through word of mouth within our network, conference exposure, and among our members’ connections. Once we began to externalize VANE in mid-2021, ventures began to find us on their own as awareness of our existence has grown through both formal marketing efforts and word of mouth. VANE has developed a strong brand and is recognized by the animal health community as an important source of animal health expertise, mentorship, as well as funding.

What does the deal flow process look like?

Our deal flow processes are continually evolving. We utilize the Dealum deal flow platform to deliver deal specifics and materials for member review and feedback, followed by virtual pitches and discussions at regular intervals. For deals that gather substantial interest by multiple VANE members, subsequent due diligence and possibly investment follow.

Since inception and as of December 2023, we’ve screened approximately 400 deals, funded 32 ventures with an aggregate funding amount of just over $6,000,000.

The Investment Process Committee (IPC) was created in June 2025 with the focused purpose of pre-screening companies with submitted applications on our deal flow database and providing pre-pitch night diligence on the companies that applied the previous month. This is done using the Angel Capital Association diligence template, with minor modifications tailored to animal health, including member voting. This rubric is applied objectively. The companies with the highest rubric scores are voted to pitch live at the next monthly Pitch Night.

What is the required investment amount?

There is no minimum required investment amount, as we’re not currently pooling investments to create a fund. Each investor only invests if there is a match between a given investment opportunity, their individual risk profile, and the minimum amount of investment offered by the opportunity. Ventures seeking angel investment typically seek minimum investment amounts ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 per investor.

The executive committee regularly reviews our operational capacity, taking into account our strategy and goals.

What support services are provided and through what mechanisms?

VANE’s Administrator provides organizational support through a wide variety of responsibilities, including member communications, budgeting and bookkeeping, working with company representatives, and other logistical matters.
Dealum is our deal flow platform, enabling high-level organization of deal flow and facilitating timely communication with companies and members.
Basecamp is our internal project management tool used by the CoFounders, Executive Committee, and Administrator
Deal Selection criteria are developed by the Executive Committee and/or CEO
Due diligence and related negotiations are usually performed collectively by the VANE members interested in investing in each deal. VANE supplies resources to help guide due diligence and occasionally will fund a legal review as part of due diligence.

Who is in charge and how are decisions made?

See below for our current organizational structure and role descriptions.

Description of Organizational Roles

LLC Members (owners of the LLC, not the VANE members): Similar to a board: Review and approve budget, manage taxes, and entity registration as needed. Meet regularly on a monthly basis including reporting from CEO.
CEO: Focused on advancing VANE’s development as an organization with long term financial viability and professional (compensated) leadership and management. Reports to LLC Members.
Executive Committee: Serves as a consultative group to the CEO, representing member perspectives, source of ideas and feedback. May take on specific projects or areas of responsibility as volunteers or with specific financial incentives as mutually agreed upon with CEO.
Administrator/Support Staff: Ongoing operational execution for VANE. Duties might vary according to the person(s) in this role but current Admin manages a/r, a/p, financial statements, member applications, Dealum, pitch logistics and other event management. Reports to CEO.
VANE Members: Participating as potential investors and/or other VANE membership activities. Serving as volunteers where there is mutual interest and areas of opportunity.