Nurses are natural innovators.

We just don’t always recognize it. Every shift, we solve high-stakes problems with limited resources and incomplete information. That mindset is the same one required to build a business. I didn’t become a founder because I always dreamed of starting a company. I became a founder because I saw a problem that wouldn’t let go of me.

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A Career in Care That Started With Curiosity

From a young age, I knew I wanted to do something in healthcare. I didn’t have any nurses or doctors in my family, but I was always drawn to science and the idea of helping people. When I was in high school, the Affordable Care Act was signed into law. That sparked my interest in understanding how healthcare systems worked. Not just how to deliver care, but how to improve the infrastructure around it.

While visiting a friend being treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering, I better understood what inpatient hospital nursing really entailed, how impactful nurses can be, and the versatility of a nursing career. Many nurses there were earning advanced degrees to become Nurse Practitioners or PhDs, working per diem jobs in other care settings, or leveraging nursing expertise in other settings such as personal injury firms, insurance companies or biotech firms. That’s when it clicked: nursing could offer clinical impact, professional flexibility, and a systems-level perspective on care.

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My Unconventional Path to the Bedside

I studied nursing at the University of Pennsylvania and minored in health services management. That opened the door to an early job at Deloitte, where I helped hospitals implement new workforce policies, programs, and technology.

It was meaningful work, but I missed patient care. I joined MSK as a night shift RN on a bone marrow transplant unit called M7. That’s where the seed for this company was planted.

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The Problem That Wouldn’t Let Me Go

At MSK, I worked with an incredible team and delivered some of the most fulfilling care of my life. But one problem stood out: staffing and scheduling.

Our assistant nurse manager did a phenomenal job, but building the schedule took her days. And I started to think more critically about how little evidence-based practice was applied to workforce operations. As nurses, we pride ourselves on data-backed clinical care. Why didn’t we use that same rigor to manage, support, and organize ourselves?

Scheduling may seem administrative, but it can make or break someone’s work-life experience. If your preferences are constantly ignored, or your shifts are unpredictable, you’re more likely to burn out or leave. Poor scheduling practices can also make or break a health system’s margins.

I searched the market for tools to help – I figured this must be a solved problem. Existing options were underwhelming and were not built to the nuances of the inpatient hospital workflow. That’s when I decided to apply to business school.

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‍Building M7 Health

I enrolled at Harvard Business School and met my co-founder Eric Gruskin. We didn’t jump straight into building software. We started by listening. We interviewed over 200 nurse managers and heard the same story: scheduling was frustrating, unfair, and a huge time suck.

To test our idea, we ran a “Wizard-of-Oz” pilot. Nurse managers sent us screenshots of their current schedules. We balanced them in Excel — taking all unit requirements and individual preferences into consideration — added visualizations, and sent back clean, fair schedules in PDF format. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. They wanted more.

That gave us the conviction to build M7 Health, named after the unit where the idea began. Today, we support dozens of hospitals in 29 states across the US and recently raised a $10 million Series A to expand our reach.

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Why Nurses Make the Best Entrepreneurs

I say this often: nurses are incredibly well equipped to succeed in entrepreneurship.

Here’s why:

• We make high-stakes decisions under pressure with limited information.
• We work in interdisciplinary teams and know when to bring in experts.
• We’re used to hunting down the right tools, people, and solutions.
• We learn ruthless prioritization and clear communication from day one.
• We show up early in our careers with a high level of professionalism — managing stress, urgency, team dynamics, constant ambiguity, and sensitive interactions.

If you can prep someone for transplant or troubleshoot a vent, you can figure out PowerPoint. You can learn how to raise money or build a pitch deck. You have learned some of the most difficult skills required as an entrepreneur.

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Creating a Culture of Innovation in Nursing

Nurses innovate every day. We solve problems for our patients constantly. What’s changing is our ability to scale those solutions across teams, hospitals, and entire systems.

Organizations like SONSIEL and NurseHack4Health are making that more possible. They provide coaching, funding, and community for nurses with big ideas. M7 Health actually got its first momentum from winning a grant through one of those programs.

And health systems are catching up. We’re seeing more hospitals hire Chief Nursing Informatics Officers, who often become powerful advocates for innovation and change.

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Never Done: Lessons from the Frontlines of Building

The biggest lesson I’ve learned: you’re never done building.

Even as M7 rolls out at dozens of hospitals, we continue to listen. Every go-live teaches us something new. Every user interaction sparks ideas for what to improve next. One well-executed feature leads to new questions — what else can M7 help me solve?

You have to keep learning. Keep evolving. I remind myself every day that even Apple is still shipping new versions of the iPhone and software updates.

The innovators journey is never finite.

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Looking Ahead

Our vision is simple. We want to make nursing jobs work for nurses. Right now that means fixing scheduling. But the future is much bigger. We want to reduce the low-value tasks that pull nurses away from clinical judgment and patient care.

And we want to grow a community of nurse innovators — people who are building better systems from within.

If there’s a problem you can’t stop thinking about, that’s a sign. Talk to others. Test your idea. Start building. You don’t need to leap, just follow where the problem pulls you.

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FAQ

Do you need an MBA to become a nurse entrepreneur?

No. It can be helpful for learning business skills and building your network, but it’s not required. Most nurses already have the hardest problem-solving abilities.

How can hospital leaders support nurse innovation?

Help define success upfront. Set shared expectations before a pilot starts. That way, everyone knows how progress will be measured and when it’s time to expand.

What if I have a product idea while working for a hospital?

Talk to someone in your hospital’s tech transfer or compliance office early. These conversations are easier when expectations are set clearly from the beginning.

Interested in Learning More?

Want to dig deeper or see how M7 works in action? Here are a few ways to continue the conversation:

• Watch the full webinar: Why Nurses Make the Best Entrepreneurs: Ilana's Story
• Learn more about M7 Health: Visit m7health.com to explore how our platform supports hospitals and nurse teams.
• Connect with us: Interested in bringing M7 to your hospital? Email us at founder@m7health.com to set up a demo.

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