Read time: 4 mins | The Frame: Supply-Side Power
Welcome to Founder Frames.
Where we decode the systems, strategies, and business mechanics of underrepresented founders.
Today’s Briefing: How Iman Abuzeid turned the broken healthcare hiring model on it’s head by treating nurses like customers, not commodities through the "reverse marketplace" engine and effective AI automation.
The Resume Black Hole
In 2017, the US healthcare system was bleeding.
The average time to hire a permanent nurse was 86 days.
Hospitals were spending billions on temporary travel nurses to plug the gaps.
Why?
Because the hiring process was archaic.
Hospitals would post a job description on a board (or a website) and wait.
Nurses would apply and wait.
Resumes disappear into an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), never to be seen again.
It was a Post and Pray model in a market where the talent held all the leverage.
Iman Abuzeid, a medical doctor turned entrepreneur, realized that the friction wasn't in the availability of nurses, but in the marketplace mechanics.
She didn't need to build a better job board.
She needed to invert the entire system.
THE BLUEPRINT
Most hiring platforms are Demand-Driven: Employers post, candidates beg.
Iman built Incredible Health to be Supply-Driven.
Meaning: Candidates create profiles, and employers pitch them.
The Pivot: Instead of nurses applying to 50 hospitals, they create one profile. Hospitals then apply to the nurses with salary ranges, benefits, and signing bonuses upfront.
Why it works:
Validation: It flips the power dynamic. Nurses feel valued, not ignored.
Speed: Hospitals are only pitching pre-vetted, active candidates.
Transparency: Salary transparency is baked in from the first interaction, eliminating weeks of negotiation waste.
Iman realized that in a constraint-based market (hiring shortage), the platform that treats the supply (nurses) the best, wins.
THE SYSTEM
A great business model dies without a great engine.
The promise of Incredible Health is speed: reducing hire time from 86 days to <20 days.
Here is the operational stack that makes that possible:
1. The 25% Filter (Quality Control)
They don't let just anyone in. Incredible Health accepts only top 25% of nurse applicants.
Automated Screening: Their sophisticated algorithms instantly verify licenses, malpractice records, and certifications.
The Result: Hospitals know that every candidate on the platform is "recruit-ready." They aren't sifting through noise; they are browsing signal.
2. The AI Concierge ("Lyn" and "Gale")
Incredible Health uses generative AI to remove friction for the nurses.
Lyn: An AI voice agent that conducts initial phone screens, verifying specialties and preferences 24/7. It ensures 100% of applicants get an "interview," fixing the ghosting problem.
Gale: An AI career coach that helps nurses polish their resumes.
Resume Wizard: Most nurses don't have updated resumes on their phones. The app builds one for them automatically.
3. The Deployment of Algorithms
Matching isn't manual.
Their proprietary matching algorithms pair nurses with hospitals based on 50+ data points, ensuring that a hospital only sees a nurse who actually wants to work there.
THE FRAME
Iman Abuzeid didn't compete with other job boards on inventory (more jobs). She competed on process (less friction).
The Takeaway: If you are building in a market with a shortage of supply (developers, designers, nurses), stop building tools for the buyer. Build tools for the seller.
Old Mental Model: "I pay you, so I have the power."
New Mental Model: "You have the talent, so I have to pitch you."
When you remove the friction for the supply side, the demand side has no choice but to follow.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Incredible Health is now a unicorn (valued over $1.65B), not because they invented nursing, but because they respected the nurse.
They used technology not to replace the human, but to elevate their status in the transaction.
Ask yourself: Where in your industry is the talent being treated like a commodity? If you built a system that treated them like the prize, would the market flip?
Until next Thursday,
AP