28 May 2026 · 27 min
Israel Krush, CEO of Hyro, built AI agents for healthcare after serving in Israeli intelligence and working at Intel. He credits military leadership lessons and a company culture built on "Open Book, No BS" with his success, and believes AI agents can transform patient access in hospitals.
Chapters
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 AI 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 Marx.
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 Hyro, 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. Uh, you guys have really taken 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 a, you know, everyone knows Hyro. You guys have done a great job. not only with your product and services, but also with the 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. And this is just like a song that I really like to listen to. Um, another one would be Impossible, uh, by James— well, it's not actually by James Arthur, but it's, uh, uh, everyone knows it, uh, from his performance at American Idol. So James Cider. And, and then like any Red Hot Chili Peppers song. So probably The Bridge would be probably like the one that I'll sing.
What about mantras or life messages? Like, are there certain types of words or quotes or things that you live by?
Um, I think that, you know, as an entrepreneur, I must be opportunistic by nature. Um, so definitely opportunism, uh, but also optimism, right? So believing, uh, in, in, in good, believing in the fact that you can make a better future for yourself, for your community, for the family, for the industry that you're serving. And maybe I'll just add that optimism is great and opportunism is great, but sometimes you need to be very strategic about those 2 things. So I like to say strategically opportunistic.
You obviously have an accent different than mine. What's your life story? You know, where did you grow up? Start from the beginning.
Yeah, absolutely. So I'm Israel. I'm originally from Israel, as you can guess by my thick Israeli accent and my name. Now co-founder and CEO of IRL. My background is in computer science and statistics. I like to say machine learning before it was called machine learning. So spent my entire career or many years of my career in the Israeli tech ecosystem, which in Israel, by the way, like a lot of it starts in the army. It depends on where you went to. So I went to the intelligence unit, like an equivalent to the NSA if you'd want. So definitely took a lot of life lessons over there, but then was a software engineer at Intel, realized that corporate life isn't really for me, and then moved to a bunch of startups from cybersecurity all the way to edtech, doing software engineering, product management, and then some leadership positions. And moved to the States. In 2017 to get my MBA. 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 Hyro was originally originated. That's cool.
Yeah. So what led you to ultimately like find your place in healthcare? Because like you described, you know, you had some military background and then you worked in 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 8 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, like 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 to easily. And I think it wasn't before end of 2022 where ChatGPT, let's call it the ChatGPT boom, right? All of a sudden everyone knows what a large language model is. Everyone are using like a ChatGPT 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 AI agents. So in fact, You know, this all today everyone are talking about vertical AI. So we actually experienced throughout our journey the move from being an AI agent company for enterprises to no, verticalization matters. 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. to really fulfill the, in our case, patient journeys, in other cases, customer journeys. And so we said, you know what, the healthcare industry is so massive. There are so many pain points that we can actually address with those AI agents done correctly. We have a nice initial customer base of organizations that trust us and wants us to do more and more. And we went all in on healthcare and became a digital health company focusing on patient access to care while also improving the operational efficiencies of health systems. And I do realize that this is, call it not the classical entrepreneurial story in which I saw this problem for many, many years, but I think it is capturing a lot of the entrepreneurial mindset. With the Lean Startup methodology and with what I told you before about being strategically optimistic. Yeah.
You mentioned, uh, you also served in the military. Were there some leadership things that you learned in the military that has helped you in your career?
In Israel, um, military service is mandatory, uh, for boys and girls, by the way, at the age of 18, which is kind of crazy if you think about it, because, um, until the age of 18 and for most people in their lives, Like you're the center of everything. You decide where to go. Maybe your parents do, right? When you're a minor, but you're the center of everything. And all of a sudden comes this big organization that puts you in, you know, many processes to determine where you can serve. And all of a sudden you're not the center of everything. So this is one big change and life lesson. I'm actually here to serve, in this case, my country versus myself, and I'm going to be wherever they want me and feel that I'm the best fit. So that's one. The second piece is I got to go to an officer course and I commanded more than 50 people at the age of 21, 22. So think about it. Think about what I just said. Let's just, you know, move the word commanded to manage. I managed 50 people at the age of 22. And by the way, managed them not 9 to 5, but we were serving at the base out of home. So we got to see our families 3 days every 2 weeks. So basically I was their mother and father of 50, by the way, not 13 years old or like 12, like 18 years old. They're younger than me in 2 or 3 years. That's crazy. And they think that this type of responsibility, uh, for in, in such a young age, uh, and being able also to thrive in an environment in which people are constantly changing and, and you are learning a lot from your peers, from your boss. Um, I think that that definitely drove a couple of nice lessons, uh, 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, it 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 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, keeping in touch to this day. So I definitely say that this is a pivotal moment for the career as 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?
Um, well, definitely my parents, right? And, and, and my dad, well, I don't know if it's definitely like, but I was very lucky, uh, to have the parents that I have. Um, they both came from the USSR. And back then, the USSR, now Ukraine, if you put specifics, they're very mindful of being multicultural. Meaning, from the age of 6 to the age of about 14, I was sent on average to 8 different extracurricular while I study. By the way, it means both sports. So I played tennis, table tennis, soccer, basketball, and I also did ballroom dancing. And also with piano lessons, like I've played the piano for 6 years and then guitar and then magic class. So I feel like definitely, and by the way, you know, in retrospect, I do see how This is a great way to prepare your kids to be a CEO, and I'll share why. Because I feel that as a CEO, you need to be dangerous enough or better than most at most things, but you're not the expert in any particular thing, right? So I'm probably better than most at playing the piano. I'm definitely not an expert in playing the piano. It goes for tennis and table tennis and all the other extra and magics. I'm happy to show you some magics when we meet. But I think that like being able to taste so many varieties of topics and becoming good to a level, to an extent in them made me like this, you know, I can juggle a lot of things.
Do you still dance? Like, was your wife impressed with you when you first met her? Like, you could do some ballroom dances?
Yeah, my wife didn't ballroom dance with me, but definitely. So obviously as a kid, my parents needed to bribe me to go on this one, you know, as a male for ballroom dancing at the age of 13, you can imagine. So they bribed me with video games. And it definitely helped my posture. So all of a sudden, you know, I'm with my back up and I have confidence, you know, way more confidence than I should have had without this experience. But I think that, yeah, probably I impressed my wife with my confidence, not with my ballroom dancing skills.
Well, you know, we already spoke a bit about HIRO and I want to finish up on leadership, but For those who don't know much about HYRO, you already spoke a little bit about it, but tell us a little bit more. And what are one or two things like the average person you meet that, you know, doesn't know about HYRO? What are some of the unique things about it?
Thank you so much. So I think that you've mentioned about the brand and the fact that we're doing a good job with marketing, which I agree, we have a terrific CMO and a marketing department, but I think that brand is way more than marketing. Or way more than like the design and the website. I think the brand part of it is the people. And I think that one thing that we've done very well is the culture that we've built within Hyro. We have core values, and again, this is not to be on a poster on the wall. They are on the wall and they are, we have posters for the values, but it's really the way that we hire. This is the way that we appreciate people now. End of fear is coming. We have the powers awards, like we are superheroes, 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 with you and vice versa, right? So it doesn't mean be rude. It's just like, man, be very open about stuff, right? So I think that the R is relationships are everything. So I think that culture is a very strong piece of what makes Hyro 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 a very details-oriented company. That's also important for like healthcare and engagement and realizing that. And we are listening, you know, we have 2 ears, 1 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 HIRO are listening 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, is kind of unique with AI today because AI companies today, they would promise like magic and like we do everything. And we're like, listen, we can't 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 underpromising, overdelivering type of mentality, but it's very detail-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 1 or 2 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've appreciated this honesty and I think that they've realized that I'm not selling. So, 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? So don't get like the CEO title, forget about it. You're speaking with Israel and This is how I'm trying to maybe relate to them. The story that I told you about, uh, multitasking and being able to juggle between so many different topics. And again, we are, I'm not the expert in sales. We have a sales leader. I'm not the expert in marketing. We have a marketing leader, product, et cetera. But I think that I'm dangerous enough to actually ask very good questions, those leaders, and make sure that they're aligned. And I think that this is something that I'm also doing kind of well and helps me throughout my career.
Where do you go or what do you do when you feel like your creativity is being drained? So, you know, everyone, you know, deals with, you know, so much action going on and you get drained a little bit. What do you do? Are there some practices that you hold onto that help you?
Yeah. So, you know, like the famous Newton story with like the apple, like he went, tree, some say the shower, and like they mixed it up. Um, but, but I think that I'm the exact opposite. So I don't get along like, 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, right? So, no, 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, it's an inner voice that expects it out of myself that will have all the answers. And also we need to give it to them like, like that, right? Immediately. And, and all of a sudden you ask me a tough question or a question that I didn't prepare for and Uh, you know, the instinct is say something like you don't want this, um, embarrassing like silence. And, and I'm like, no, I, I, I actually prefer to think for a moment, then give you an answer that I actually believe in versus just shoot whatever like, um, is in my head. Um, and I think that I definitely had, uh, in, in the past, like, Uh, um, 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, I wanted to make. And, you know, like this sentence about no second chances for first impressions.
Yeah.
I, I think that's also no second chances for like failed first answers that you give, uh, in, in, in some sort. So, Yeah, I don't want to tell the exact story that I think of, but I definitely spoke too soon, too early, without fully thinking or materializing what I want to say, learned the hard way. And since then, people at IHRO 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. So, yeah.
No, I love that. That's a good one. I think that's a lesson that we've all need to learn or probably have learned. So, uh, this is Israel. It's been amazing. We, we, we spoke about music, uh, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, uh, Lucky Man, Impossible. And we talk about sort of life messages, the optimism, opportunism, but all, you know, being very strategic, creating, uh, great futures. And we talked about your life, uh, growing up, uh, and multifaceted. Your parents were very intentional exposing you to a bunch of different things. And in the military, we talked about some of the leadership that you learn, you know, with teamwork and early on responsibility and motivating young people. And then we talked about HYRO quite a bit, just the history of the company, how it was created, some of the ways that you operate. I love some of the things that you say about persistence prevails, open book, no BS. You know, it sounds like a great culture that you've created. And then we talked about your, the really the leadership qualities that you've learned through the years that you take with you that we can all Learn from. Yeah, it's been a great conversation. What did we miss, or what would you like to double down on? I'll give you the last word.
Yes, maybe just to connect everything that we've, we've talked about with the state of healthcare and healthcare IT. I think that we are very lucky to live in an area where we're talking about the AI 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, right? Think about like, did someone talk about the Industrial Revolution 3 years after, I don't know, the first like engine breakthrough or something like that? No, right? So we need to realize how big it's going to be and no one can really predict the future. But I think that as part of it connecting to all that we talked about, we need to be very strategic in the opportunities. that we choose to pursue, but we also need to be very optimistic about this future and about the outcomes that it can bring, not for the operational efficiency of our health system, which is great, 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 Kresh, 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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