Doctor Builds $1.65B Platform Where Hospitals Apply to Nurses

When Dr. Iman Abuzeid's surgeon relatives complained about nurse shortages while nurses in her cofounder's family couldn't get callbacks, she knew something was broken. The problem wasn't a lack of qualified nurses, it was a 20-year-old hiring system that treated healthcare workers like an afterthought.

So in 2017, she built Incredible Health with a radical twist. Instead of nurses desperately applying to dozens of hospitals and hearing nothing back, hospitals now apply to them.

Abuzeid was born in Sudan, raised in Saudi Arabia, and finished medical school in London by age 24. She followed her father and brothers into medicine but quickly realized she wanted impact at a bigger scale. After earning her medical degree, she skipped residency entirely and never practiced medicine.

Instead, she joined McKinsey to learn hospital operations, earned an MBA at Wharton, and worked at healthcare tech startups in San Francisco. That unusual path gave her both clinical insight and the technical skills to build something new.

The platform she created lets nurses sign up once, set their preferences, and wait for interview requests to roll in. They choose which opportunities interest them and decline the rest. For nurses tired of throwing applications into the void, the model feels revolutionary.

Incredible Health started small, launching only in the Bay Area before expanding to Los Angeles and eventually nationwide. Today, it serves about 1,500 hospitals, including major health systems, community hospitals, and surgery centers. One in two nurses in America now uses the platform.

The Ripple Effect

The company recently added AI agents named Gale and Lyn that save HR teams one to two months of work. Gale helps nurses build resumes and practice interviews. Lyn conducts screening interviews for employers, cutting weeks off the hiring timeline.

That efficiency matters in a healthcare system struggling with chronic understaffing. Faster hiring means operating rooms can schedule more surgeries, emergency departments can handle more patients, and burnt-out nurses get the support they need.

The company has raised $100 million and hit a $1.65 billion valuation in 2022, earning unicorn status. Hospitals pay subscriptions to access the platform while nurses use it for free.

Abuzeid's advice for other founders centers on mental health. She credits therapy, executive coaching, and firm boundaries for preventing burnout. "The number one job of a CEO is to manage your own psychology," she says, echoing venture capitalist Ben Horowitz.

Her journey from medical school dropout to billion-dollar founder proves that sometimes the best way to heal a broken system is to build something entirely new.