Nov 25, 2020 · 28m · how-i-built-this
How I Built Resilience: Dr. Iman Abuzeid of Incredible Health
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of How I Built This: Resilience Edition, Guy Raz interviews Dr. Iman Abuzeid, co-founder and CEO of Incredible Health, to discuss how her platform modernizes permanent nurse hiring. Dr. Abuzeid details how technological innovation, bias mitigation, and strategic resilience enable healthcare systems and startups to thrive amid severe industry crises.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 37.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 2.4 Guest teaching 2.5 Guest disagreement 0.5 Guy pushing back 0.5
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 24:38 Pushing back against anonymizing names and pictures
Abuzeid directly rejects Raz's idea that removing names eliminates hiring friction, explaining that platform data showed it depressed interview requests by destroying human connection.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 12:01 Challenging the premise of startup speedRaz questions Abuzeid on whether the company truly had the agility to build the pandemic suite without the external emergency forcing their hand.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 24:38 Educating on the failure of blind candidate profilesAbuzeid schools Raz on candidate behavior by revealing that experimental blind profiling actually hurt conversion rates because recruiters need human connection markers.
Guy holds their own ▶ 16:38 Citing CMS Medicare telehealth policy changesRaz displays domain expertise by specifically noting that CMS began reimbursing doctors for virtual consultations with Medicare patients during the pandemic.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Introducing Dr. Iman Abuzeid and Incredible Health | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Raz opens with an agreeable conversation setting up Incredible Health's platform and proposes policy ideas like subsidizing nursing education. Abuzeid shares industry statistics regarding the national nursing deficit and the platform's reversed application model. | |
| Founding Incredible Health and Developing Career Tools | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Raz asks exploratory questions about Abuzeid's medical background and the startup's revenue mechanics. Abuzeid explains their subscription tier model and clarifies that the platform focuses solely on permanent placements. | |
| Responding to COVID-19 with the Pandemic Hiring Suite | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Raz gently presses Abuzeid on whether the product was glitchy upon initial release and whether the company would have moved so quickly without the urgency of the pandemic. Abuzeid stands firm that speed is a core startup value independent of COVID-19. | |
| Managing Company Culture and Remote Employee Wellbeing | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Raz asks an open-ended question about handling team wellbeing during remote work. Abuzeid provides practical examples of mental health surveys, stipends, and flexible scheduling. | |
| Mid-Program Break and Book Endorsement | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Raz displays industry knowledge by noting CMS reimbursement changes for telehealth with Medicare patients. Abuzeid builds on this by discussing accessibility and digital divide constraints. | |
| Tackling Hiring Bias and Age Discrimination in Nursing | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Raz brings up audience feedback on age discrimination and suggests removing age from candidate profiles. Abuzeid explains the operational nuance that work history inadvertently signals age, while detailing how removing location removed geographic bias. | |
| Structured Interviewing Practices and Candidate Preparation | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | Raz suggests testing the complete removal of names and photos to stop systemic bias. Abuzeid corrects this hypothesis with empirical product test results showing that anonymizing profiles significantly reduced hiring engagement. | |
| Operational Strategy and Regional Market Expansion | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Raz invites Abuzeid to offer inspirational advice on starting a business during uncertain times. Abuzeid provides an encouraging case for entrepreneurship and managing perceived career risks. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Abuzeid: US will be 1 million nurses short by 2024
“Like by 20, 24, we're going to be one million nurses short. And that shortage just keeps getting worse and worse.”
Incredible Health is deployed at over 250 US hospitals and health systems
“That's why by adding the, you know, changing the model so they're applying to the nurses, adding the screening, adding the custom matching has really accelerated the hiring and why we're used at over 250 hospitals and health systems across the country today.”
Incredible Health offers free 50-state accredited continuing education to all nurses
“So for Incredible Health specifically, you know, we provide free continuing education to every single nurse in the country. Continuing education is needed to renew and activate their licenses, and they usually have to pay out of pocket for it, you know, just o…”
Abuzeid: Incredible Health charges hospitals volume subscriptions, free for nurses
“Yeah, it's designed as a subscription, and within that, you know, the hospitals are picking, are selecting different tiers that are based on volume, but it's, of course, a hundred percent free for the nurses.”
Abuzeid: Incredible Health only places permanent staff, no contract workers
“Yeah, so for our platform specifically, we only do permanent workers, right? We don't do any contract workers.”
Abuzeid: US national annual nursing turnover rate is around 17%
“So usually it's at 17% is a national annual turnover right now.”
Abuzeid: ICU and ED Nurse Demand Tripled on Incredible Health by April 2020
“Certainly by April there was a spike in demand for specific types of nurses. If you were an ICU nurse or an ED nurse, like, that hiring for that, like, increased, like, by three X on our platform, like, right away.”
Abuzeid: Incredible Health Cuts Hiring to 12 Days, Saving Hospitals $2M+
“All of these with a goal of accelerating the hiring even further, so we got it down to 12 days now, and on average we save every hospital that we work with at least two million dollars because they dramatically try to reduce their travel nurse costs as well as…”
Abuzeid: 50% of Incredible Health Team Reported Anxiety or Depression Symptoms
“We had done a quick survey of our team, and it was, like, 50% were experiencing some kind of symptoms of anxiety or depression, and I think that's pretty common across the board, across the country.”
Abuzeid: Age and career gaps reduce nurse hiring opportunities
“Not only do older nurses get hired less, even if you took a gap from the workforce, right, like you had to raise your kids or, you know, you just have to take a few years off, that also reduces your hiring, you know, chances and opportunities.”
Abuzeid: Hiding candidate locations eliminated geographic hiring bias on platform
“We noticed that nurses that lived further away from a facility were less likely to get interview requests on the platform, even though they wanted to, you know, live in wherever it was, LA or Dallas or whatever it was. And what we did is we just removed the cu…”
Abuzeid: Incredible Health profiles omit age, but work history reveals it
“The tough thing with age is that, you know, work experience, of course, is required, and so absolutely age is not part of the nurse profile, but work experience is, and so sometimes you know, employers can tell from that.”
Abuzeid: 'Cultural fit' and 'gut feeling' must be removed from hiring
“In terms of interview practices, when we're hiring for our team, the most critical thing is to get phrases like cultural fit, and like my gut feeling. These kinds of phrases need to just be removed from any hiring process. Totally.”
Abuzeid: Highly experienced nurses frequently bomb job interviews
“I don't think nurses should assume because they're very experienced that they know how to interview. And we've just seen it time and time again that you know, very experienced nurses can sometimes bomb interviews.”