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672. What Makes Judy Faulkner Run?

April 24, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Judy Faulkner, the 82-year-old founder and CEO of Epic Systems, told Stephen Dubner a story about her 2016 Tesla. When she engaged the autopilot on a hilly road, the car would accelerate from 35 to 60 miles per hour, cross the double yellow line, and head straight at oncoming traffic. She called Tesla, a technician rode with her and witnessed the bug, and they brought another car to confirm it was the software, not the hardware. Faulkner told the story not with drama or fear, but as a debugging exercise: she identified the parameters (hilly terrain, 35 mph), hypothesized the error (the car thought the road was ending), replicated it, and supervised the fix. That temperament—the coder's instinct to diagnose and repair rather than panic—is the same one she has applied to building the most dominant electronic health records company in the United States.

The company that doesn't want to maximize profit

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:00) **Advertisements** - Opening ad read for LinkedIn ads, Mint Mobile, and Sleep Number. (Skip to 01:19 for the substantive start.)
  • 2 (01:19) **Introducing Judy Faulkner and Epic Systems** - The episode opens with the story of Epic Systems, the dominant electronic health records (EHR) company based in Verona, Wisconsin, and its founder and CEO, Judy Faulkner.
  • 3 (07:39) **The "Integrated Solution" Thesis** - Dubner introduces the core argument for Epic’s success, citing UCSF’s Bob Wachter: Epic won because it owns the entire software stack, providing an integrated solution rather than bolting on tools from different companies.
  • 4 (11:20) **The Influence of Family and "Tikkun Olam"** - Faulkner discusses her parents, particularly her mother, a peace activist, and the Hebrew concept of *tikkun olam* (repair the world) that shaped her philosophy.
  • 5 (15:56) **The Accidental Founder** - Faulkner explains she had no interest in starting a company until a chance meeting gave her a simple three-step roadmap, leading to the founding of Epic in 1979.
  • 6 (19:52) **Antitrust Concerns and the "Paradox" of Success** - Dubner raises the antitrust claims against Epic, and Faulkner defends the company’s position by focusing on customer freedom and the complexity of integration.
  • 7 (23:17) **A Day in the Life and the "Ten Commandments"** - Faulkner reveals she keeps printed slides outlining her role and a typical day, and Dubner walks through Epic’s famous "Ten Commandments," starting with the top two: do not go public and do not acquire or be acquired.

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Show Notes

Epic Systems manages the electronic health records for hundreds of millions of people. This makes Faulkner a healthcare heavyweight and one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in history. So why haven’t we ever heard much from her? Stephen Dubner travels to Verona, Wisc., to explore the Faulknerverse.

 

  • SOURCES:
    • Judy Faulkner, C.E.O. and founder of Epic Systems.
    • Seth Howard, executive vice president of research and development at Epic Systems.

 

 


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