Hippo Manager Software

How to read this. This is Rivas Will's read on publicly observable signals — founder tenure, PE fund vintage, hiring patterns, acquisition posture. It is analysis, not insider information. If you are the founder and we have it wrong, write to Sam — the correction ships in the next update.

Cloud-based veterinary electronic health record (EHR) and practice management software for small and large animal veterinary practices. Founded in 2012 in Lexington, Kentucky by Sam Razor and Bart Conrad. Acquired by Shepherd Veterinary Software on March 1, 2025 (PitchBook, retrieved 2026-04-14). All Hippo Manager customers have been migrated to Shepherd's platform (Shepherd, retrieved 2026-04-14).

The exit — what happened

Hippo Manager's exit unfolded in two stages:

Stage 1 — PE secondary, 2021. Cultivation Capital's exits page records Hippo Manager as "Acquired by private equity in 2021" (Cultivation Capital, retrieved 2026-04-14). This gave the Series A investors (Cultivation Capital, Stout Street Capital, M25, Keyhorse, Wakestream) their liquidity event — roughly 3 years into hold, well inside the typical Midwest VC fund cycle. The identity of the PE buyer has not been publicly disclosed.

Stage 2 — Shepherd acquisition, March 1, 2025. PitchBook records the acquisition date as March 1, 2025, with Shepherd Veterinary Software as the acquirer (PitchBook). RevUp Capital (a fund-of-funds-style investor in Hippo Manager) confirmed the deal in its Fund 2019 wrap-up: "Hippo Manager, acquired by and now part of Shepherd Veterinary Software, modernized operations for independent vet clinics across the country" (RevUp Capital, retrieved 2026-04-14). Tracxn and CB Insights both mark Hippo Manager as an acquired company as of 2026 (Tracxn, CB Insights).

No deal terms have been disclosed for either transaction. At an estimated $3M–$8M ARR and 11–50 employees, the Shepherd acquisition likely fell in the $10M–$40M range (2x–5x ARR), but this is speculation — there is no cited multiple.

The acquirer — Shepherd Veterinary Software

Shepherd Veterinary Software (shepherd.vet) is a cloud-based vet PMS headquartered in Prescott, Arizona, with San Francisco ties. Founded in 2018 by veterinarians and technologists, backed by Y Combinator (geo.sig.ai, retrieved 2026-04-14). Self-describes as "the nation's fastest-growing practice information management system" (LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-04-14). Shepherd appears to be part of a broader vet-tech group that also includes DVM Galaxy (vet practice websites and digital marketing). The Hippo Manager acquisition was a customer-base and product roll-up: Shepherd absorbed the Hippo Manager customer roster and sunsetted the legacy platform.

Product (pre-acquisition)

Hippo Manager was a full-suite cloud PMS with six modules: appointment scheduling, medical records (SOAP workflow), inventory management, point of sale, client communications (email, SMS, postcards), and a built-in DICOM viewer for medical imaging. Pricing was $119/month with unlimited users, unlimited patients, and unlimited data (SourceForge, 2026). Integrations included IDEXX and Antech diagnostic labs, plus pharmacy and imaging workflows. The company used HubSpot for marketing, Salesforce Revenue Cloud for sales operations (Cloud Creations), and DigitalOcean for hosting.

Founders — where are they now

Sam Razor — co-founder, 14-year tenure at Hippo Manager. His LinkedIn headline now reads: "Tech Entrepreneur | Executive Chairman at Parasight System Inc. | Founder of Hippo Manager Software | Driving Innovation in Veterinary and AI-Powered Solutions" (LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-04-14). Razor has moved to Parasight System Inc., a Lexington, Kentucky animal health diagnostics company that makes automated fecal egg count analyzers for veterinary clinics. Parasight won a 2023–2024 Bluegrass AgTech Challenge Grant (Lane Report, Aug 2024) and has launched two products: the Sight5DX diagnostic panel for dogs and cats, and the Insight Equine IA analyzer for horses (Brakke Consulting, 2025). This is the classic founder exit pattern: sell the software company, stay for transition, then move to an adjacent venture.

Bart Conrad — co-founder, originally system architect and CTO (Gust). Last public title: Senior Software Developer at Hippo Manager. Based in Newburgh, Indiana. Prior experience: senior developer for a national equine association (Crunchbase). Current status post-acquisition is unclear.

Funding history

Angel round (date undisclosed): Awesome Inc (Lexington KY accelerator), Cherub Fund, Bluegrass Angels. Kentucky-local angel investors.

Series A — $1.4M, August 27, 2018: Co-led by Cultivation Capital (St. Louis) and Stout Street Capital (Denver). Other participants: M25 (Chicago), RVC, Keyhorse Capital, Wakestream Ventures (Crunchbase, retrieved 2026-04-10). RevUp Capital also invested (RevUp Capital). Sixty8 Capital (Lexington, Kelli Jones) is listed by Business Insider's 2022 Midwest VC survey (Business Insider, Oct 2022).

No funding activity after August 2018. The 2021 PE event gave VCs their exit. The 2025 Shepherd acquisition was the terminal event.

Revenue estimate (pre-acquisition)

Crunchbase listed Hippo Manager in "United States Early Stage Companies With Less Than $10M in Revenue" and "Health Care Early Stage Companies With More Than $1M in Revenue." At $119/month base pricing with unlimited users, revenue scaled with practice count. I estimate $3M–$8M ARR (low confidence) based on the employee count (11–50), the pricing model, and the growth runway.

What the Hippo Manager exit means for vet-tech

The vet PMS market continues to consolidate. Hippo Manager is the latest independent to be absorbed — joining EzyVet (IDEXX, 2022), Vetspire (Thrive Pet Healthcare, 2021), and Vetter (DaySmart, 2020). The acquirer profile is notable: Shepherd is a YC-backed startup, not a corporate strategic or PE roll-up. This pattern — VC-backed cloud-native PMS acquiring legacy independents for their customer base — is worth tracking. It mirrors what happened in dental-tech (Planet DDS consolidating cloud-first practices) and legal-tech (CARET absorbing Amicus Attorney).

The remaining independent vet PMS companies in the $2M–$50M ARR band are thinning. Each exit narrows the field and increases the scarcity premium for the survivors.