From Associate to Owner: Dr. Nicoletti’s Path to Partnering with VPP to Buy an Established Practice

The third and final post in a series on VPP’s three pathways to partnership, told through the doctors who’ve walked them.

Every veterinarian who dreams of ownership eventually runs into the same question: How? At Veterinary Practice Partners, we’ve built three distinct pathways to get doctors there. Some want to build a hospital from the ground up. Others want to buy into an existing VPP hospital, stepping into a running practice and team. And some, like Dr. Nicoletti, partner with VPP to buy an established hospital together, often from a retiring owner ready to hand off their legacy. Each path looks different, but they all lead to the same thing: real equity, real autonomy, and a hospital that stays true to the doctor who leads it. This is the last in our series looking at what each path actually looks like in practice.

What It Means to Partner and Buy a Hospital Together

Of the three pathways, this one is built for doctors who’ve already found the right practice, often an independent hospital that isn’t yet part of the VPP network, and want a partner to help them buy it. Rather than joining a hospital VPP already owns, you and VPP acquire the practice together, closing as true co-owners of a business that’s brand new to VPP but already established and profitable in its community.

The pathway is typically the fastest path to co-ownership, often six months or less from first conversation to closing. In exchange, you inherit a profitable, running business with an existing client base and staff already in place, along with the economies of scale that come with joining an established operation.

Dr. Nicoletti’s Story

Dr. Nicoletti knew early on that she wanted to own a practice. Not just any practice, but one she could shape into the kind of place she’d always wanted to work: good for her staff, good for her clients. Twice, she thought she’d found her way in through a traditional succession plan, first at the hospital where she started her career, later at a third practice she hoped to purchase into. Both fell through, for financial reasons and because the timing never quite lined up.

“I’ve always wanted to be able to own a practice and to really build something that I can make my own.”

As far as she knew, there were only two real options left: build something from scratch, which meant years without much work-life balance, or buy into a practice slowly as an associate, which could take just as long to get her where she wanted to be. That was the extent of what she thought was possible, until she heard about VPP.

One phone call led to a video meeting, which led to a flight down to Houston a month later. Over dinner, VPP had already identified a hospital that might be the right fit, a practice whose longtime owner, Dr. Mangum, was ready to retire. It wasn’t a requirement or a hard sell, just an option worth exploring. Looking back, Dr. Nicoletti calls it one of the best decisions she’s ever made.

Weighing it against everyone else. She wasn’t only talking to VPP. She looked at a few other veterinary groups, and found VPP was the only one offering a true path into an established hospital in the way she needed. The others leaned more corporate in feel, more focused on folding her practice into their own brand. VPP, she said, showed her more trust and really tried to make what she was looking for a reality.

Corporate wariness, earned honestly. That trust mattered because Dr. Nicoletti came in skeptical of anything with “corporate” attached to it. Right out of school, she’d turned down Banfield’s signing bonus because she wanted to work for an individual owner, not a chain. Then, at her second job, her very first day happened to be the day her new hospital was acquired by a corporate group. She watched the owner get pushed out and a fellow associate get let go within weeks. It stuck with her. So when VPP first came up in conversation, she admits she was hesitant. What helped was talking to another veterinarian in the area who’d already gone through the process with VPP, plus getting to know the VPP team along the way.

“It’s really just been support. It’s been someone there for financial support, for medical support, for benefits. Something that makes me able to run this hospital better than I could on my own.”

Protecting what was already built. Buying into an established hospital comes with a responsibility that a De Novo build doesn’t: honoring what’s already there. Dr. Mangum had been a fixture in his community for years, and Dr. Nicoletti felt that weight the moment she stepped in. She kept his daughter on as office manager. She avoided sweeping changes to staff or process just for the sake of change.

“I really wanted to make sure that for his clients, for new clients, and for the staff, that we respected what this clinic was, and only did things that could make it better.”

A new chapter, on and off the clock. The timing wasn’t only professional. Dr. Nicoletti got married last March, and ownership had been something she and her husband talked through for years before it became real. Even now, walking into her own hospital still feels a little surreal. She describes finally having a home base, somewhere she can grow into rather than a stop on the way to somewhere else, after years of moving between practices.

Looking back at the road that got her there, she’s clear-eyed about how close she came to a different outcome. She’d planned on building a hospital from scratch, the only route she thought existed, until that first conversation with VPP introduced her to a pathway she didn’t know was possible.

“Once I found out that it was an option with VPP, it was an easy answer for me.”

Veterinary Practice Partners · Pathways to Partnership Series