Iman Abuzeid, a doctor-turned-founder, created Incredible Health to tackle the U.S. healthcare staffing crunch by reversing the hiring process so employers apply to nurses and other clinicians. The San Francisco–based platform, launched in 2017, says its products are used by 1.5 million healthcare professionals — including 1 in 2 U.S. nurses — and 1,500 healthcare employers, and has raised about $97.5 million from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Base10 Partners, Obvious Ventures, Precursor Ventures and NFX.
How Incredible Health flips the hiring process
Incredible Health’s marketplace inverts the normal dynamic: instead of clinicians applying and waiting, employers submit applications to candidates. The software automates screening and matching for permanent roles at hospitals, surgery centers, home health organizations and other facilities. The service is free for healthcare professionals; employers pay an annual subscription to access the marketplace and additional hiring tools. Customers include Kaiser Permanente, Tenet Health, Trinity Health, NewYork-Presbyterian and Johns Hopkins.
From medicine to startup
Abuzeid trained as a doctor in London but chose not to pursue a residency; her father was disappointed. She has said she did not abandon healthcare but wanted to work on problems affecting many more people than she could treat individually: “Working as a doctor is great, but you’re only working with one patient at a time,” she told Crunchbase News. “With software, you have millions of users using your products.”
Originally from Sudan, Abuzeid was raised in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, moved to London at 18 to complete undergraduate studies and medical school, then immigrated to New York at 24. Her work in healthcare consulting at Booz Allen and McKinsey exposed her to strategy, operations and the economics of the healthcare system. She later earned an MBA from the Wharton School, specializing in healthcare and entrepreneurship, and moved to San Francisco in 2013, where she worked as a product manager at an early-stage health tech company and met her future co-founder, Rome Portlock.
Abuzeid does not code, though she has experimented with AI-assisted coding tools. Portlock, an MIT-trained engineer who Abuzeid calls “the best engineer I’ve ever worked with,” has led Incredible Health’s engineering and data teams since the beginning. Abuzeid emphasizes that a software founder’s central job is not writing code but identifying markets, understanding customer problems and figuring out ways to solve them: “At the end of the day, when it comes to creating software companies, it’s about solving problems.”
Diagnosing the mismatch in hiring
The company’s origin story grew out of conversations that exposed a disconnect: doctors in Abuzeid’s circle described understaffing, while nurses in Portlock’s circle described applying to many jobs and often receiving no response. “This doesn’t make any sense,” the founders recall when they dug into the issue. They found hospital recruiting teams were often small, overwhelmed by applicant volume and reliant on manual processes, creating delays and missed matches.
Fundraising and investor selection
Incredible Health has raised funding across seed, Series A and Series B rounds. Abuzeid said she spoke with about 70 investors while raising the seed round; eight invested, including Obvious Ventures and Precursor Ventures. She described each round as oversubscribed and attributes investor interest partly to raising from a position of financial strength: the company generally operates close to cash-flow break-even and has at times been cash-flow positive.
Abuzeid said she is selective about investors, preferring firms with marketplace experience, partners who have operated companies, and investors who have previously backed women or founders of color: “I don’t want to be the first. I’m not here to overcome someone’s bias. That’s not a good use of my time.” She also advises female founders to be explicit about ambition and the size of the companies they intend to build.
AI agents and measurable impact
In 2025, Incredible Health incorporated AI into its product lineup, developing agents in collaboration with health systems including Baylor Scott & White Health, Sutter Health, NewYork-Presbyterian, Johns Hopkins and Tenet Health. One agent, Lyn, conducts the initial recruiter interview, asks clinical and behavioral questions, explains an employer’s value proposition and discusses available roles before handing the candidate to a hiring manager. Another agent, Gail, helps healthcare professionals craft résumés and practice interviews.
Abuzeid said Lyn has reduced hiring time by 30%. Three-quarters of interviews now occur within 24 hours of a candidate applying, compared with as long as two weeks previously, and about 40% of interviews happen at night or on weekends when recruiters are less likely to be available. Portlock continues to oversee engineering, data and technical architecture, while Abuzeid draws on her background in medicine, consulting and product management to lead the company’s strategy and operations.
Abuzeid’s path — from medical training to consulting, product management and startup leadership — underscores the founders’ view that technical coding is not a prerequisite to build software companies when the focus remains on solving real customer problems.
