Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) announced that Cherie Kloss, founder and CEO of SnapNurse, was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2021 National Award winner, following her selection as a Southeast award winner in July. Now in the midst of its 35th anniversary celebration and recognized as one of the most prestigious business award programs in the world, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program recognizes the endeavors of entrepreneurs who create the products and services that define how we live, work and play, as well as those designed to better the communities they serve.

“I am incredibly honored to be a part of this esteemed group,” said Kloss. “I would like to use this moment of recognition to take the spotlight off myself and put it on the 25,000 nurses we deployed during the pandemic who cared for critically ill patients around the county."

The candidates were evaluated based on their entrepreneurial leadership, talent management, financial performance, societal impact, degree of difficulty in navigating and overcoming obstacles to make their companies successful, and originality, among other core contributions and attributes.

Established in 2017, SnapNurse’s innovative healthcare staffing solution allows its partners to self-select nurses and allied professionals for both urgent and long-term staffing needs. Thanks to its unique same-day payment model and the growing ubiquity of its platform among nurses nationwide, SnapNurse has proven uniquely positioned to offer solutions to healthcare facilities hit hard by the pandemic.

The company fills short-term nursing vacancies in less than 48 hours -- a disruptive departure from the 14-day average provided by traditional medical staffing agencies, with an average deployment time of under 48 hours. From Q1 2020 to Q1 2021, SnapNurse grew at a rate of 40,000%.

“I started this company when I was 49,” continued Kloss. “It’s never too late if you have an idea and the courage to start. We grew this company from a tiny startup to the largest healthcare staffing platform in less than three years."

Kloss joins the following leaders from across the nation as Entrepreneur Of The Year 2021 National Award winners:

  • Jesse Singh, CEO, The AZEK Company, Chicago, Illinois
  • John Keppler, CEO, Chairman and Co-Founder, Enviva Partners, LP, Bethesda, Maryland
  • Dastagir Nobel, Founder & CEO, and Nipa Nobel, Co-Founder and CMO, MTX Group, Frisco, Texas
  • Abhi Ramesh, Founder & CEO, Misfits Market, Delanco, New Jersey
  • Marc Gorlin, Founder & CEO, Roadie, Suwanee, Georgia
  • Jared Isaacman, CEO, Shift4 Payments, Allentown, Pennsylvania
  • Dr. Jason Wersland, Co-Founder, and Ben Nazarian, Co-Founder & CEO, Therabody, Los Angeles, California
  • Mat Ishbia, Chairman & CEO, United Wholesale Mortgage, Pontiac, Michigan
  • Sheila Mikhail, Founder and CEO, Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio), Research Triangle Park, North Carolina (national overall winner)

“In an unprecedented era for business, all of our national winners showed an exceptional level of resilience, agility and innovation,” said Andrew (AJ) Jordan, EY Americas Entrepreneur Of The Year Director. “These national winners demonstrate the true spirit of entrepreneurial leadership, pivoting as necessary to keep their commitment to society at the forefront, while also continuing to build companies rooted in uplifting their employees and community stakeholders.”

To commemorate the program’s 35th anniversary, EY US commissioned its Impact Study, which provides an analysis and survey of past program winners and in-depth interviews. Findings highlight the impact that the Entrepreneur Of The Year community has had on the broader business community, including:

  • On average, the companies of program winners grow at a rate of approximately 50% faster and create jobs nearly four times faster than the US economy.
  • On average, Entrepreneur Of The Year organizations go public approximately 100 times more than new US private organizations and have outperformed the US stock market in 26 of 29 years.
  • More than 70% of all winning companies self-reported outperforming their peers in 2020 and attribute their outperformance to decision-making speed and organizational flexibility.
  • Entrepreneur Of The Year Award winners are driven to succeed and aspire to a higher purpose of leaving the world a better place than they found it.

Since 1986, EY US has honored entrepreneurs whose ingenuity, spirit of innovation and tenacity have driven their companies’ success, transformed their industries and made a positive impact on their communities. The winners were announced during a celebration held at the Strategic Growth Forum®, one of the nation’s most prestigious gatherings of high-growth, market-leading companies. The winners will go on to become lifetime members of the esteemed multi-industry community of award winners, with exclusive, ongoing access to the experience, insight and wisdom of fellow alumni and other ecosystem members in over 60 countries — all supported by a wide variety of EY resources.

Sponsors

Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards are nationally sponsored by SAP America and the Kauffman Foundation.

Videos and photos

Videos and photos of all Entrepreneur Of The Year Award winners will be available at https://www.ey.com/en_us/entrepreneur-of-the-year/meet-the-winners-2021.

About Entrepreneur Of The Year®

Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world’s most prestigious business awards program for unstoppable entrepreneurs. These visionary leaders deliver innovation, growth and prosperity that transform our world. The program engages entrepreneurs with insights and experiences that foster growth. It connects them with their peers to strengthen entrepreneurship around the world. Entrepreneur Of The Year is the first and only truly global awards program of its kind. It celebrates entrepreneurs through regional and national awards programs in more than 145 cities in over 60 countries. National overall winners go on to compete for the title. Visit ey.com/us/eoy.

About EY Private

As Advisors to the Ambitious™, EY Private professionals possess the experience and passion to support private businesses and their owners in unlocking the full potential of their ambitions. EY Private teams offer distinct insights born from the long EY history of working with business owners and entrepreneurs. These teams support the full spectrum of private enterprises including private capital managers and investors and the portfolio businesses they fund, business owners, family businesses, family offices and entrepreneurs. Visit ey.com/us/private.

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About SnapNurse

Founded in 2017, SnapNurse is the Atlanta-based nurse staffing company taking the world by storm. Named Atlanta’s fast-growing company by the Atlanta Business Chronicle in 2021, the award-winning platform for short term and long-term nurse staffing is already the industry’s emerging tech-enabled staffing platform with more than 150,000 registered nurses serving more than 1,000 facilities, with an average fill time of less than 48 hours. SnapNurse is also the only female and minority-led business of its kind.