Hi everybody, it's Anne Duffy and welcome to the Just DeW It podcast. I am like uber excited today. I've got a superstar here with me today. you all have heard of her, you've heard of her company, but before we get started, let me tell you a little bit about her, Dr. Wardah Inam. The CEO of Overjet, the leading provider of AI technology and dentistry ranked among the 32 most influential people in the field by incisal edge.
Anne: She previously led product development at Q Bio was a postdoctoral fellow at M-I-T-C-A. And earned her PhD at MIT where her AI powered Microgrid Research gained global recognition with experience at GE and Apple. She's also a recipient of the Graduate Woman of Excellence Award.
cow welcome Wardah. How are you today? Thank you and I'm great. Thank you for having me. I tell you, when someone reads your bio, do you just like pinch yourself and go, my God, I can't believe that's me.
Wardah: Or do
Anne: you go, oh my God, yes, I've accomplished all this, and you're honestly just getting started. You're young, you've got energy, you've got everything in front of you. I'm just, enamored by your, success. But then I read this and it, not overnight. you've worked really hard and obviously you are very smart.
Well, thank you for the kind words. I wanna know a little bit about you because I was, before we got started, I was like, I honestly, I see you on stages and all that, but I just like where were you born? And tell me a little bit about how you got, to MIT and then to overjet.
Wardah: Yeah, so I was born in Pakistan. I grew up in Pakistan andpeople who don't know where,that's in between India and Afghanistan. my dad was in the Air Force, so we traveled everywhere. So every few years we would back up and go to a new place.
So Iwent to many different schools, many different, cities and rural areas so, moved a lot but I was always interested in science and technology and math and that's why I went into engineering and, went to an engineering school there as well. And then,got into MIT and, came to the US in 2010 and have been here since then.
That takes
Anne: so much grit. where are your family now? Are they still in Pakistan? Yeah. Or where are they? Oh, they are. Okay. So, did you come here all by yourself to the states? Yeah. I, I came all by myself. And how old were you, darling, when you got here?
Wardah: I was in my twenties.
I was coming from grad school, so right after undergrad I came here.
Anne: Oh my gosh. That's just, whenever I hear a story like that, warn, I just, I give you so much credit. I'm from Dayton, Ohio, you know, like I just got outta bed, went to Ohio State, you know, I mean, all those things.
And here you are, just like, a young lady with a dream and look at you now, and then you got into dentistry. So, I love Overjet. as a practicing hygienist for 46 years. When was Overjet founded?
Let me ask you that. we started over Jet 2018.2018. Well, I did not hear about it until I saw you on the stage of women in DS o. Okay.Which, uh, was the first year. I think I emceed that, so I,That was, you were in 25, probably 21. Yeah. I wish I would've had that.
I mean, golly, it just makes our lives so much easier. And, the technology, is it always progressing? I mean, every day are you doing new things with the company and with the technology that you're using?
Wardah: Yeah, so it, it's a very exciting time to be working in ai. You know, the technology is just getting better and better every day.
and we're utilizing the latest tools and technologies and, and thenpushing the boundary as well. some things we are doing, nobody's done before. we have to not only do the development, but also the research and likefigure out the techniques and, and build it out.
Anne: And when you're the first one doing it, I think that's the hard part, right? I mean, you've obviously done well with your marketing and of course I know Neil Hoover and he's a dear friend, lives down the street from me, andand he has absolutely loved working for you and with your company.
But I guess AI is changing so much. To be at the forefront of that. Some things will work and some things won't, I guess. Is that how you just have to keep testing things?
Wardah: Absolutely. you're experimenting, you're making bets. You know, you're hoping that, it will pan out and if it doesn't, you are moving on into the nextthing.
And, you know, there have been things that we've not released because it never reached. level that we were happy with. it might come out later when the technology evolves even further, but there are many things that we haven't released But we learned from it.
And, the next thing we do is better because of the learnings we had.
Anne: that's so exciting because I feel like you guys, were the first, you know, of this kind and then just to think of like. All of us just, you know, discovered chat GPT, you know, a couple years ago.
So it's like, it is amazing. And then to be in the forefront of that, there is so much that we can do in dentistry, right? And then,it needs to be in every office and around the world. It'd be crazy not to, take on the technology that actually helps us diagnose and present to our, clients and, and all the other things that you've got going on.
Behind the scenes at Overjet. there's just, so much ahead. What's ahead? What do you see ahead? can you share a little bit about what you see for AI and dentistry that maybe not be there right now? The possibility.
Wardah: would say right now in, say, dental practices, it has been helping dentists provide better care.
However, where a lot of the focus will be next is improving efficiency of practices mm-hmm. As well. Sothe idea is can we reduce costs while we improve care? so that there isn't that much administrative overhead. There isn't that back and forth between payers and providers.
There isn't, you the mistrust that happens. So like how do we remove all these friction points that exist using AI and do it in such a way that there's a win-win for everyone? and that's the beauty of AI where a technological innovation like this, when it occurs. The pie just gets bigger and there's opportunity for everyone to win.
And I think that's the areas that I really like to work on, rather than saying, you know, we'll take it from this side and you know, the one side will win and the other side will lose, or whatever it might be. I think there's an opportunity now to increase the pie and improve the outcomes for patients, providers, payers, and make sure that everybody wins.
Anne: That's terrific because I thinkdentistry has come to a point where the expense of so many things, it's just bogged everybody down. They're afraid they're burnout, all of those things. And to be able to have a win-win for the patient and the practice and save on cost and time, I mean, it's like, I guess that's what you do as a scientist, right?
You find a problem and then you figure out a way to,fix it and lead the team to do that. Tell me a little bit about your leadership and the lessons the different worlds that you have. Were in ai, I mean Apple, ge, MIT, all those worlds. What stuck with you the most as far as you as a leader?
Wardah: I think for me a few things is this experimentation. I think that's what I learned MIT for example, like, something hasn't been done before doesn't mean it won't happen, right? It's, it's mm-hmm. It for you to figure out how to do it.then I think, at Apple, I think one of my biggest learnings there was,this was actually, Johnny, ive, their,most famous designer, giving the speech,during onboarding and telling us that, look around you. Everything that exists has been created by someone. And when you look at it, you can tell how much love went into it, how much effort thought went into it.
So everything is a reflection of you. And the effort, et cetera that you put into it, actually, that's what makes good. Products or make products which barely work. You know, look at your light sockets, you don't even know which light connects to which, button.
And you're like always flipping all these buttons to see it. Like, that's not a good design, right? Like whoever was thinking through it didn't think through it enough. so I think that was a,way of thinking changed in my head, which was, Everything that you build, like the email that you sent it is a reflection of you and how much effort you put into it.
people can feel it, even though, you might not tell them.
Anne: Wow. I love that you put love into it too.Wardaha. know, as a scientist and all that, they think you're just like hard charging, but you have a love for this. I mean, thata beautiful thing.
'cause we based do on love and knowing your strengths and really falling in love with yourself and falling in love with the others for other strengths. 'cause you have other strengths than I have, together, all these things work in the world. I love that.
Wardah: when we were doing, like for example, the colors that you see on our pictures, the amount of iterations that went into if you look at it, there's pages and pages of like, the transparency and the shade and like what is it reflection of, et cetera. And you could have solved this in a minute and said, okay, just put. White, yellow, green and whatever went out, or there was this like, this focus on it, that it matters.
And won't be done until we all were like, okay, got that. That's it, that's the color.
Anne: that's a total wide range. And no one would believe that. I mean, of course, it's a couple things. That's you being a scientist and also the perfectionism that it takes.
I know that you feel like, you've gotta get it just right. But also I thinking back on your childhood, you are so adaptable, Wardah, and you have to be as a scientist also. Like you can't just be so zeroed in on the outcome of something. It's just a, lot of curiosity and trying this and trying that and see what really works.
that's so cool that you spent that much time on something that to me seems like, you know, you take it for granted as a customer. As a woman leading in both tech and dentistry, what unique challenges or opportunities have you experienced and what advice would you share for other women aspiring to this type of leadership?
Wardah: you know, I'm, I'm still of course learning here and, learning from people around me and, the society we live in and the expectations that are of women, especially, I think things do change when women have kids. Mm-hmm. the way their house is, set up really, it also starts to impact their career in different ways. I think the, system is not designed for that you know. Mm-hmm. System is not designed for both partners working, even, work isn't designed for that as well.
So we are living in a world which is still a remnant of the past, where, you know, one party worked the other, you know, stayed at home. Mm-hmm. And I think that that is, uh, has a negative impact. and I think what does that future need to look like and you, if you had asked me. Couple of years ago I would've said, oh, like there isn't real, you know? Mm-hmm. It's all theseunconscious biases that are mm-hmm. That are there. But there isn't, like this system, is the same.
But I do think there is now being a mom, understanding these things a little bit more, I do think there are some things that. Hopefully do change, in the long term, so that everybody can succeed.
Anne: Well, that would be great. It's so funny to me that you know, we're still where we are and I, I don't know if it's because women intuitively have the care gene or the intuitive nature of just wanting to do it all.
We spent all the plates and, you know, it was so funny because somebody was talking about. Picking up the kids at school and they called the husband, and the husband's like, why would you call me? I don't even know what time he gets picked up or she gets picked up, And then we laugh when women go on trips because once you have children, you have the frozen food in the refrigerator, you've cooked, you've got it all ready.
You tell 'em where to go. Who's picking up on Monday, Tuesday? Weand the men just leave. Yeah. That is changing, but it's slow. It's as slow as molasses because I think. We can do it if you want the job done. They say give it to a woman. And you're a perfect example of that. Wardah. How old are your children?
I have one. He's three years old. Oh. So yeah.
beautiful, Beautiful. That's, and you know, I always say this and, in dentistry. it's hard to take a pause, right? And like step back because you've got two babies, you've got your 3-year-old, and then you've got Overjet, your company and all the stuff that you're doing in the future.
I think that sometimes it's okay to take a little bit of a step back because what I found raising our children, and of course they're all grownups and you know, I could be your mom, which is lovely. I'm a dental mom for so manyWardah and I'll be glad to adopt you. But I think sometimes we just don't realize You can get help that's the important thing. And then, We don't wanna miss it. You know, sometimes the kids didn't care if I missed their soccer game, but I didn't wanna miss all that stuff. So I think that the world has to change on that. And we have to keep, again, like, who can we get to help us, and then get the right people in our corner to help us do those things so that the kids, I think women set a great example for boys, and girls, that we can have a great career and that we could not be.
One vertical, it can be multiple verticals. And as we know, women do spin. I don't know how many plates you're spinning,Wardaha, but I can imagine it's more thanit's more than my husband. I could know that for a fact. And we do it gracefully. what's the parting words and advice would you give to our members, dental entrepreneur, women?
Again, you know, it's funny. Just a side, note here. We. called it Dental Entrepreneur Woman Word.'cause I had Dental Entrepreneur magazine already that just made sense. But it's really about all women are entrepreneurial, no matter what you say.
they've got that entrepreneurial gene where they find a problem and they figure out how to solve it. So what advice would you give for somebody that's getting started, has an idea? I guess that's where I wanna go, has an idea. And doesn't wanna let go of it until it comes to completion. what advice would you give to a young woman?
Wardah: think that you kind of said it, which is, you know, don't give up. You know, just keep at it, there's a lot of things that come and, you know, you get hit, et cetera, but if you are at it,there's a lot of, or high probability that it happens.
that would be my thing.
Anne: Well that lends itself to principle number nine of do. And it is start, don't stop. Do's, don't retire. So, welcome to the DO community, my dear. I can't wait for you to be on the, panel that we have at the retreat on Saturday. JC Memminger.
We were on a call yesterday. She's so, you know, jc she's so excited, about this opportunity to interview you and, the other women that are. Powerhouses on our panel, so I can't wait to see you in November. November 13th through 15 in Charlotte, North Carolina. So thank you for saying yes to that.
thank you for supporting us and all women in dentistry Wardah. We will look to you. You are setting an example and keep doing you. Okay. Thank you, Anne. Thank you so much. Thanks for being with me today. It was my esteem. Pleasure. All right,Wardah, have a great trip. Great day. I'll see you on the road.
