Chapter 1: What personal experiences shaped Israel Krush's leadership style?
People say that I'm a good salesperson, but I think it's actually because I'm not trying to sell you something. And I'm just like being very honest, right? You need to understand the workflows. You need to understand the business logic. You need to have the deep integration into the legacy systems in order to really achieve the goals. We are very lucky.
to live in an area where we're talking about the air revolution is bigger than the industrial revolution, bigger than the internet. I completely bought into this. And we need to realize that we're just in the first innings of it.
Welcome to Digital Voices, where healthcare and life science leaders explore the real work behind transformation. This podcast is about people, leadership, and the conversations that move healthcare forward. Now your host, Ed Marks. Welcome to another edition of Digital Voices. Thanks for listening and watching.
I know you have a lot of different things you can be listening and watching, and we're going to make it worth your while because we have the most incredible CEO here with us from Hiro, Israel Krush. Israel, welcome to Digital Voices.
Thank you so much for having me, Ed. Excited to be here.
No, it's going to be so good. You guys are really taking healthcare by storm. You know, we'll get into that a little bit. I'm jumping ahead, but, you know, you came out of nowhere and now it's like, you know, everyone knows, Hiro, you guys have done a great job, not only with your product and services, but also with marketing and building a company. It's been quite fantastic to watch.
So that's why I'm so glad to have you as a guest, just kind of talk about that and talk about leadership and some other very unique things about you, Israel. But before we get too far, the most important question, what songs are on your playlist?
Well, songs. So one is Lucky Man by The Verve. This is just like a song that I really like to listen to. Another one would be Impossible by James. Well, it's not actually by James Arthur, but everyone knows it from his performance at American Idol. So James Arthur. And then like any Red Hot Chili Peppers song. So the bridge would be probably like the one that I'll signal out.
What about... mantras or life messages? Like, are there certain types of words or quotes or things that you live by?
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Chapter 2: How did military service influence Israel's sense of responsibility?
I got it from Cornell University, specifically Cornell Tech, which is a relatively new campus in New York City. That's where I met my co-founder, Rom, who did his master's in computer science. I like to say we actually met in a machine learning class, nothing to do with the MBA, just something that I was able to take because of my background. And that's where HIRO was originally originated.
That's cool.
Yeah. So what led you to ultimately like your find your place in healthcare? Cause like you said, you described, you know, you had some military background and then you worked in a tech industry, different roles and positions, but ultimately if you found yourself in healthcare, was there a particular driver that made that happen?
Yeah, so I think that when we started the company, and again, almost eight years ago, we had an hypothesis, which is AI agents are going to be all around us. Today, it might be obvious, you know, but we're still not there. But it's obvious that this is the direction that we're heading to.
But the less obvious thing was that it's going to be very hard for large enterprise organizations with lots of data from various data sources to deploy and maintain those AI agents. And again, I connected to it mostly from the technical background.
thinking about the intent classifications and again, machine learning models and why the deployment is tough and why the integration to legacy systems or to the knowledge is going to be an obstacle. So really thinking about it from a technical perspective. And like a lot of early stage founders, we did like the lean startup methodology, which is basically build, measure, learn, right?
And as part of that, we would speak with anyone who would be willing to speak with us. So we spoke with CIOs from academic medical centers and health systems, but we also spoke with CIOs from banks and travel agencies and government clients. And we've realized also that in regulated industries, the complexity level is even higher because of regulation, right?
Which you can probably connect easily. And I think it wasn't before, So end of 2022, where ChetGPT, let's call it the ChetGPT boom, right? All of a sudden, everyone knows what the large negligence model is. Everyone are using like a ChetGPT application, right?
And we thought to ourselves, well, we have a couple of good academic medical centers and health systems in healthcare, but we have also, again, those travel agencies and whatnot. And the future is going to completely change. And the amount of competition that we're going to see, and we're not going to compete with Google or OpenAI or Sierra on building, you know, AI agents.
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Chapter 3: What led to the shift of Hyro's focus to healthcare?
By the way, not 13 years old or like 12, like 18 years old. They're younger than me in two or three years. That's crazy. And I think that this type of responsibility in such a young age and being able also to thrive in an environment in which people are constantly changing and you are learning a lot from your peers, from your boss, I think that that definitely drove a couple of
nice lessons that shaped me later on as an entrepreneur.
What's a pivotal moment in your life that fundamentally changed your trajectory? Could have been the military, could have been something else, but was there, or maybe when you met Ram in the machine learning lab?
I think that definitely like the military service, I don't know if it, it definitely opened me for entrepreneurship in the younger age. And it's sort of like, always I felt like it's almost as expected out of me given like the service that I've had and I think that Without this, potentially, like I would be doing something else. So I'm definitely humbled and grateful for this.
And maybe like worth mentioning, I met my wife through my military service and I met my best friends through my military service, friends that we're still, you know, keep in touch to this day. So I definitely say that this is a pivotal moment for the career as a whole.
Yeah, no, I love that. I can certainly relate. I was just looking if I had it here, I was cleaning out a lot of books during the holidays. And one of the books I kept close by were my military leadership books that I received because I had a similar experience to you as you did early on in your life.
Was there a person in your journey, again, could have been the last 10 years, could have been in the military, but a person in your journey that helped you see who you could be? You know, you go along, you're 18 or 20 or sometimes 30, you know, it's like you still don't see yourself as what you could be. But was there someone who believed in you before you believed in yourself?
Well, definitely my parents, right? And my dad, well, I don't know if it's definitely like, but I was very lucky to have the parents that I have today. They both came from the USSR. And back then at the USSR, now Ukraine, if you put specifics. They're very mindful of being multicultural. Meaning, from the age of six to the age of about 14,
I was sent on average to eight different extracurriculum while I study. By the way, it means both sports. So I played tennis, table tennis, soccer, basketball. And I also did ballroom dancing.
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Chapter 4: How does Israel define 'strategically opportunistic'?
This is the way that we appreciate people. Now, end of year is coming. We have the powers awards, like we are super heroes. So we have powers, that the powers are our values. So P would be persistence prevails, which is my favorite one. Another one that a lot of people, customers, by the way, also people that chose not to be customers like the most is open book, no bullshit.
And again, this is a way of life. This is not all for a marketing slogan, right? If we're not going to be a good partner to you, I would tell it to your face. I don't think that we're going to be a good partner to you. And vice versa, right? So it doesn't mean be rude. It's just like, I mean, be very open about stuff, right? So I think that the R is relationships are everything.
So I think that's... Culture is a very strong piece of what makes Hyrule great. Great to work in as an employee. We're hiring a lot of folks. So welcome to check out the career page. But also great to be a partner of. So I think that our partners really appreciate us because of our values and what we stand for and how we operate, basically. So I think that this is the number one thing that...
really pops maybe if I can share another thing which is we are very details oriented company and that's also important for like healthcare and engagement and realizing that and we are listening you know we have two ears one mouth so we try to in this podcast I'm doing like a lot of talking but usually on calls I'm actually very quiet and I'm listening and like a lot of the employees at Hyrule are listening and
Because we're very detail-oriented and we're trying to understand the differences, the nuances, what you said versus what you really mean. Because not everyone are open book, right? Completely. So I think that that's the other case, which is... If you think about it, it's kind of unique with AI today because AI companies today, they would promise like magics and like do everything.
And we're like, listen, we can do that. I don't know what other people are telling you, but this is not the state of the art or like what's out there today. And so I think that it's maybe like, under promising over delivering type of mentality, but it's very detailed oriented mentality.
I love it. Like I said, you all have a stellar reputation in the healthcare industry. Israel, you've had this great career so far, still a long ways to go, and this military experience in multiple different industries. What would you say are the one or two key skills that have helped you the most?
Definitely what I just said about like being open book, right? I think that it's almost anti-selling. The customers that wanted to work with us the most are the customers that I told them, listen, we're not a good partner to you. And I think that they appreciated this honesty and I think that they've realized that I'm not selling. So, yeah.
People say that I'm a good salesperson, but I think it's actually because I'm not trying to sell you something. And I'm just like being very honest, right? So I think that this is one thing that helped me throughout my career, right? Now helping me as a CEO, even though, you know, by title, people... believe 50% of the things that I say. And by the way, I'm very open about that as well, right?
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Chapter 5: What lessons did Israel learn from his entrepreneurial journey?
Yeah. So, you know, like the famous Newton story with like the apple, like you want three sunsets, the shower and like they mixed it up. But I think that I'm the exact opposite. So I don't get along like for creativity. I don't. go to a place and meditate with myself, like the complete opposite. What I do is I go to the office and I speak to people and I sit with them at lunch, right?
So I make sure that between my back-to-back schedule, I have some room for lunch and I sit with everyone and I actually make sure that they sit as well and not in front of the computer. And like in these small talks, these corridor talks,
being able to be in an environment of people that are talking about hockey and the weather and basketball, but all of a sudden also about like this pesky feature and this customer that isn't satisfied with us. And this is how innovation starts.
So I think that I'm a big believer in when I need creativity, I actually come to the office and I actually surround myself with some of my peers and I'm not trying to, let's get creative.
Yeah, no, I love that a lot. What's one thing that you learned the hard way?
Maybe what I'm just doing now, which is think before you talk. So I don't know. I'll tell you why. Because I feel that as CEOs, right, people expect you to, I don't know if expect you, but maybe it's an inner voice that expects it out of myself. that we'll have all the answers. And also we need to give it to them like that, right? Immediately.
And all of a sudden you ask me a tough question or a question that I didn't prepare for. And, you know, the instinct is say something. Like you don't want this embarrassing like silence. And I'm like, no. I actually prefer to think for a moment, then give you an answer that I actually believe in, versus just shoot whatever is in my head. And I think that I definitely had in the past.
situations in which I just said the first thing that came to mind and it was definitely not the thing or the message that I wanted to make and you know like this sentence about no second chances for first impressions I think that's also no second chances for like failed first answers that you get in some sort. So, yeah, I don't want to tell like the exact story that I think of.
I definitely spoke too soon, too early, without fully thinking or materializing what I want to say, learn the hard way. And since then, people at IRO would tell you that Israel's strategy in a conversation would be, if the conversation is 30 minutes, be quiet for the first 20 minutes and then speak his mind. Yeah.
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Chapter 6: How does Israel's upbringing prepare him for being a CEO?
but mostly from a patient perspective. We're all patients. So I do believe that there is a huge opportunity, opportunities in increasing patient outcomes, in improving patient outcomes. And as a patient, I'm very excited to find out more about it.
Israel Koresh, thank you for being a guest on Digital Voices.
Thank you. It was lovely to be here and share my story with everyone.
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