How She Built a Marketplace for a Million Nurses | Iman Abuzeid (Incredible Health)

In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I’m joined by Iman Abuzeid, the co-founder and CEO of Incredible Health, a platform transforming how healthcare systems hire nurses.

After earning an MD, Iman pivoted to business and technology. She spent some time working in New York before enrolling at The Wharton School, where she earned her MBA. After graduating, she moved to Silicon Valley and worked as a product manager at AliveCor, where she met her future co-founder. Together, they launched Incredible Health, a company now valued at $1.65 billion.

In our conversation today, we talk about the following topics: 

• Why Iman chose a different way to apply her medical school training 

• The unique insights gained from NFX’s accelerator program 

• Incredible Health’s purpose and its downstream effects on quality of care

• The evolution of Incredible Health’s MVP

• The focus on profitability from day one

• How to commit to your values 

• The importance of vetting investors 

• How Incredible Health has implemented AI

• How Amazon’s single-threaded model inspires the way Incredible Health prioritizes

• And more! 

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Where to find Iman Abuzeid: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imanabuzeid/
• X: https://x.com/imanabuzeid

Where to find Eric:

• Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ericries.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

• Podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ericriesshow.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

• YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

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In This Episode We Cover:

(00:00) Intro

(01:52) An overview of Incredible Health

(02:48) Why Iman started Incredible Health

(05:22) Why Iman went to medical school but decided not to practice clinical medicine

(06:42) How Iman got into software

(08:01) Iman’s background and why she is drawn to entrepreneurship

(09:19) Why Roman and Iman left AliveCor to start their own company

(11:00) How the partners at NFX helped Roman and Iman transform their original vision

(15:55) James Joaquin's vision of "world positive" and how Incredible Health embodies it

(18:15) Balancing the lofty mission of quality care with financial goals

(20:20) The reasons for labor shortages in the healthcare industry

(22:20) The tools Incredible Health has to help nurses manage their careers

(23:18) What the MVP of Incredible Health looked like

(26:00) Some statistics around the current size of Incredible Health

(26:43) The values that Iman leaned into to overcome many difficult obstacles

(29:22) How Iman has created so much value with a small team

(31:49) Early decisions made that led to high impact and high growth

(33:34) The world positive term sheet and how Incredible Health clarified its values

(36:51) The three ways Incredible Health implements values

(38:30) Eric’s culture bank and leader’s guide

(39:50) Anecdotes from Incredible Health that illustrate customer obsession, speed, and

(43:41) How the pandemic impacted Incredible Health

(46:25) How Incredible Health upholds values and ensures accountability

(49:00) Protecting the culture from outside sources

(52:38) The future of product strategy and growth strategy at Incredible Health

(55:21) Learnings from implementing AI

(57:45) Building and retaining trust on both sides of the marketplace

(1:02:23) The importance of neutrality with all employers

(1:04:25) Prioritization and community standards

(1:08:15) The company as a whole vs. individual contribution

(1:11:24) Lightning round

Referenced:

• Incredible Health: https://job.incrediblehealth.com/
• Rome Portlock on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romeportlock/
• Booz Allen: https://www.boozallen.com/
• Mckinsey & Co.: https://www.mckinsey.com/
• Wharton: https://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/
• AliveCor: https://www.alivecor.com/
• NFX: https://www.nfx.com/
• James Currier on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamescurrier/
• Pete Flint on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peteflint/
• James Joaquin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesjoaquin/
• Obvious Ventures: https://obvious.com/
• Patagonia: https://www.patagonia.com/
• HCA: https://hcahealthcare.com/
• Tenet Healthcare: https://www.tenethealth.com/
• Johns Hopkins Medical: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/
• Kaiser Permanente: https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/
• The world positive term sheet: https://obvious.com/ideas/introducing-the-world-positive-term-sheet/
• Trulia: https://www.trulia.com/
• Basecamp’s principles of shaping: https://basecamp.com/shapeup/1.1-chapter-02
• Mark Cuban on X: https://x.com/mcuban
• Jeff Jordan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffjordan1/
• GitHub CoPilot: https://github.com/features/copilot
• OpenAI: https://openai.com/
• The Single-Threaded Model at Amazon: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31276269

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Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed.