Mar 6, 2020 · 34m · 20vc
20VC: Why Most Founders Do Not Structure Their Fundraise Correctly, The Pros Of Having An MBA As A Startup Founder & How To Manage The Psychology Of Being CEO and Overcome Self Doubt with Iman Abuzeid, Founder & CEO @ Incredible Health
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In this episode of The 20 Minute VC, Dr. Iman Abuzeid, co-founder and CEO of Incredible Health, joins host Harry Stebbings to share valuable insights on fundraising mechanics, CEO psychology, operational scaling, and building high-performing, diverse startup teams.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Harry holds 37.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 2.9 Guest teaching 6.1 Guest disagreement 2.9 Harry pushing back 1.8
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 25:17 Iman calls out diversity pipeline excuses as BS
Iman directly dismisses common industry narrative, calling the 'pipeline problem' an excuse and 'BS', while insisting talent is evenly distributed across all demographics.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 21:07 Harry challenges guest on being a control freak who struggles to delegateHarry uses his own tendencies as a control freak to push back on Iman's high-achieving mindset, directly questioning if she secretly struggles with retaining control.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 18:45 Iman details adopting her 'Chad' alter ego to overcome biasIman candidly educates the host on how she adopted the persona of a privileged white male named 'Chad' to project the necessary assertiveness and confidence required in fundraising.
Harry holds his own ▶ 21:07 Harry presses on control freak tendencies in high achieversHarry brings his personal perspective and probes beyond the guest's polished answers to see if delegation and trusting others was a real operational struggle.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Background, Ideation, and the Pivoting Process | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Harry introduces Iman and asks standard background questions about her journey and ideation. Iman explains her transition from M.D. and McKinsey to tech, detailing how her team systematically filtered 100 ideas down to 1 after a difficult pivot. | |
| Raising Capital as a Minority Founder and Pitch Strategy | 2 | 6 | 2 | 1 | Harry asks about fundraising as a minority female founder. Iman details how she advises founders to ignore daunting statistics and strategically sequence pitches from Tier 3 to Tier 1 VCs to iterate on their pitch. | |
| Evaluating Investor Value-Add and Demanding VC Empathy | 3 | 6 | 4 | 2 | Harry asks where VCs can add real value and where they need to improve. Iman candidly highlights tangible investor help while explicitly calling out the VC ecosystem for a lack of empathy toward operators. | |
| VC Content, Network Effects, and Extracting Value from Rejections | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | Harry brings up VC Twitter and rejections. Iman breaks down how she uses high-quality VC content as product roadmaps and turns rejection meetings into free strategic consulting sessions. | |
| The Benefits of an MBA and Capital Management | 3 | 6 | 3 | 2 | Harry asks about the stigma around MBAs in startup culture. Iman defends MBAs by pointing to crucial corporate credibility and financial modeling skills needed to manage cash flow and dilution. | |
| Managing CEO Psychology, Imposter Syndrome, and the Chad Alter Ego | 3 | 7 | 3 | 1 | Harry asks personal questions regarding CEO psychology and imposter syndrome. Iman reveals her adopt-an-alter-ego hack named 'Chad' to project unearned confidence and assertiveness during high-stakes pitches. | |
| Evolving Leadership, Functional Delegation, and Productivity Hacks | 4 | 6 | 3 | 4 | Harry presses Iman on whether her high achievement makes her a control freak who struggles to delegate. Iman reframes delegation around startup speed and avoiding becoming a bottleneck. | |
| Building Diverse Teams and the Unmatched Power of the Bay Area | 3 | 8 | 6 | 2 | Harry asks about diversity pipeline challenges and the unique draw of the Bay Area. Iman aggressively dismisses the 'pipeline problem' as CEO BS and details the unmatched information network effects in Silicon Valley. | |
| Addressing Hiring Mistakes and the Quickfire Round | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | Harry asks about managing hiring mistakes before launching into a quickfire round. Iman explains her unsentimental timeline for letting poor fits go within weeks to protect business performance. |
Statements from this episode (14)
Abuzeid: Startup pivots should be celebrated, not ridiculed
“Pivots are extremely tough to go through psychologically. What it means is that, you know, we have to basically change the entire company and change what we're doing altogether, but they're very common, right, in Silicon Valley, and I guess they should be cele…”
Black female founders receive just 0.1% of VC funding
“I think black Female woman get zero, one percent of VC dollars, which is effectively zero.”
Abuzeid: Story and market vision drive VC deals, not traction
“I learned very quickly that traction isn't what gets deals done. What gets deals done is an amazing story with a huge vision, with a huge market that you're pursuing, and a very unique insight about how you're going to achieve it.”
Pitch tier-three investors first to practice before meeting tier-one VCs
“You need to meet the Tier three investors first, then the tier two, and end with the tier one. It's very much like job interviews where, like, you practice on companies that you don't care about as much, and so the companies you really want, you leave them tow…”
Top VCs add value by introducing founders to their LP executives
“Whether it's Obvious Ventures or Andreessen Horowitz, both have introduced me to hospital execs. Some of them are even their LPs, and that's been extremely helpful with helping us grow our business.”
Turn imminent VC pitch rejections into free strategy consulting sessions
“Usually, you know, 10 minutes into the pitch that they're probably going to say no. You can just tell from their demeanor and how they're asking questions and stuff. But I'm like, you know, I just need to sit here for another 40 minutes, right? So I'm just goi…”
Abuzeid: MBA finance classes and credibility benefit startup founders
“Listen, outside of the VC community does give you some credibility. Like when you're selling to enterprise customers, for example. Two is that it's specifically the finance and accounting classes you take are incredibly helpful when you're building a business.”
Abuzeid: Managing personal psychology is a startup CEO's primary responsibility
“Ben Horowitz in his book, Hard Things About Hard Things, one of the first things he says is the number one job of the CEO is to manage your own psychology. And I've, now that I've been like in the trenches here, like it's so true.”
Every startup CEO should hire a professional therapist to manage anxiety
“Honestly, I have a therapist, and I generally encourage all CEOs to just get one. There's a lot of anxiety and stress in this job, so whatever external professional support you can get is probably going to be quite helpful.”
Abuzeid adopted a privileged white male alter ego to project confidence
“I pretty much adopted an alter ego, and this alter ego actually happens to be a white male who, you know, who is highly privileged as well, because I had observed how members of that demographic operate. Like, I see them walking into a room, and the amount of …”
Abuzeid: Assertiveness and confidence, not substance alone, close investment checks
“Even if your content and your substance is fantastic, adding that confidence and assertiveness is extremely helpful as well. And that really is what ultimately Ends up getting checks, or sales, or people signing up for your team.”
Diversity pipeline problems are an excuse; talent is evenly distributed
“When people say it's a pipeline problem, it sounds like a little, like an excuse to me. It's BS, honestly. If you look at the US or, you know, the world, talent is evenly distributed. Opportunities are not.”
Abuzeid: Homogeneous tech teams contain mediocrity by missing top talent across demographics
“I do truly believe that talent is evenly distributed, so what that means is that every single demographic, you're trying to hire the top five percent of white male men, or you're trying to hire the top five percent of Hispanic women, and so if you have a bunch…”
Abuzeid: Unresolved startup hiring mistakes must be terminated within weeks
“Now, if after a certain period of time, and unfortunately in a startup, it cannot be very much time, because time is money here, and we got to move really fast. So within a matter of a few weeks, actually, if it's not resolved, then they likely need to leave t…”