Imran is one of the co-founders at Nye. When he's not at work he enjoys the allotment life 🥕🥔🥦, here he is with one of his homegrown radishes:
But we wanted to know more about what Imran does when he is at work, so we had a little chat with him...
If you think the work Imran does sounds interesting, perhaps you might like to work with him?
We're currently hiring, check out our open roles here!
Imran, you're a co-founder of Nye - what motivated you to start a company?
The people on the journey! Building a company from scratch has been a great challenge but it’s given me the opportunity to work with people I respect and learn from every day.
Can you tell the world a lil’bit more about your life before Nye?
I started out as a medical doctor interested in medical research and teaching. I went back to university in the United States on a program funded by the Fulbright Commission to study business and public health. Studying in Boston opened my eyes to the opportunities in healthcare, technology and entrepreneurship as I studied and observed several health technology companies.
When I returned to the UK, I started training as an ophthalmologist. Although I enjoyed my job and loved the patient contact, it was clear that working as a surgeon wasn’t going to enable me to have the type of impact I most wanted to create in the world. I also yearned to work on multidisciplinary problems, and bring a healthcare perspective to a team of people with different skills.
I moved to McKinsey in 2015 and spent 3 years working with many of the big (top 20) pharmaceutical and medical technology companies on their digital, commercial and analytics projects. That time was a total whirlwind - immensely challenging and developmental which is what I wanted at the time, but also a total thrill.
After 3 years at McKinsey, we co-founded Nye.
What do you enjoy most about working at Nye?
Working alongside people that have deep and varied expertise, and seeing what is possible when we work together on something special.
The tremendous learnings I have been through, mostly through tripping up, making mistakes and getting coached and supported by my peers! It has been a steep learning curve.
Seeing the impact of our products on citizens and clinicians during a time of great need.
How have you developed professionally during your time at Nye?
So much!
When we first started Nye, myself and my co-founder Alexander ended up doing a lot of it ourselves. We learnt how to do a bit of everything!
Some of that has gone away as we’ve grown and brought on awesome and talented people to lead various functions. As a co-founder though, you get exposed to a bit of everything... you see the good, the bad and the plain ugly of what it takes to run a business so I’m still learning everyday!
In particular as a company we’ve learned a lot about how to deploy innovation and technology into the healthcare system, mostly through trying things that didn’t work, or partially worked, and then iterating towards something that has really stuck. Some of these learnings have been counter-intuitive but that only makes it more interesting!
That's a pretty amazing journey! What's the most important thing you've learnt?
That in order to succeed in an early stage startup, you really do have to adopt a growth mindset. That will mean often facing and owning the many mistakes you make and looking for the learning opportunities - and my experience has been no exception. It’s hard but ultimately that’s where the personal development and growth happens.
What one thing are you most excited about in your future at Nye?
Can I pick two?
Okay, we'll let you have two.
The first is the team! I really am super excited about what we will build together and seeing our impact in the world.
The second is the product! We are working on some new products at the moment which will explore new ground in the market - I can’t wait to see what comes of it!
We are living through a pandemic, it is a tough time for a lot of people, what message would you like the world to hear?
Be kind to yourself. Don’t judge yourself too harshly. This is especially true for parents, carers and those that are looking after others. It’s easy to feel the full weight of responsibility to work, educate your children, keep your household afloat, etc. It’s OK to just go with the flow a bit.
I’d also say take time to invest in your own health and well-being - this pandemic is a marathon, not a sprint. This might be doing what you can to strengthen your social bonds and engage with/supporting your community in this “new normal”. Some methods I’ve found helpful include exercise, mindfulness, gardening (as pictured!) - it’s really worth trying something new. You never know what will improve your strength and resilience.
If a potential applicant was reading this interview, what one other message would you want to leave them with?
Given all the turmoil that the world is in, I think of being able to work somewhere like Nye, as a special kind of privilege. We’re in a position where we can actively help to address some of the problems the world is facing right now. And that feels pretty incredible.
There are lots of great companies out there working on difficult and challenging problems. I think what sets Nye apart is the deep sense of purpose that we feel about the work: the opportunity to support hundreds of thousands of patients across the UK, and provide the front-line tools that power care delivery and clinical trials.
If you think you’d like to work on solving problems like that, we want to hear from you!
Imran, thank you so much for sharing your many wisdoms with us! 💖
P.s. Don't forget to check out our open roles here!