Shamus Roeder had a clear reason for shifting his career from medicine to engineering.
“I had the realization that [being a doctor], I could only help the patient in front of me,” Roeder said. “With biomedical engineering, if you make a key innovation, it propagates and can help a lot of people.”
Mr. Roeder uses the concept of “scalable impact” to describe his approach to mentoring at the University of Iowa’s John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC). As a dedicated mentor, he views his role as one that amplifies the potential of aspiring entrepreneurs.
With a strong academic foundation – earning a BS in human physiology (’17), a BSE in biomedical engineering (’17), and an MS in biomedical engineering (’19) – Mr. Roeder’s contributions have not gone unnoticed. He has been named Iowa JPEC’s Mentor of the Year and will be honored on Oct. 11 during the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Honors event.
“What I struggled with in the past is the fact I never received a formal business education outside of being in the (Iowa JPEC) accelerator program,” he said. “I didn’t get my entrepreneurship certificate or a business degree. When I spoke business with people, I encountered resistance because I am ‘just an engineer.’ This award gives me more confidence that I do know what I’m talking about.”
As senior product manager and government affairs lead for Whiterabbit.ai, Mr. Roeder juggles a range of responsibilities. His connection to Iowa JPEC is no different, which dates back to his undergraduate days, when he happened upon a flyer for the Startup Games while walking down a sidewalk.
“I decided to do it, and I failed miserably the first time,” he said.
That summer, Shamus Roeder joined the Iowa JPEC accelerator as an engineer, observing fellow entrepreneurs and immersing himself in the program. The experience inspired him to pursue his own startup.
By fall, Roeder had founded ABAL Therapeutics through the Startup Games, later placing third in the International Business Model Competition in Mountain View, California, in 2017. The following summer, he returned to the Iowa JPEC accelerator – this time as a founder – where ABAL Therapeutics earned Best Startup honors for its cohort. In 2018, the venture was named Student Startup of the Year by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Born in Iowa City and raised in central Illinois, Roeder returned to Iowa City before high school and now resides in Washington, D.C. His long-standing involvement with Iowa JPEC has included roles as a participant, class speaker, coach, judge, Venture School entrepreneur, and mentor, where he is one of 67 supporting the Venture Mentoring Service.
His message to University of Iowa students is clear: get involved with Iowa JPEC.
“If nothing else, having identified a problem and gone out of your way to build a sustainable venture to address it, that will distinguish you more than anything else you can put on your resume,” he said. “A lot of people get 4.0s (grade-point averages). Not everyone has built a business and had some real metric of success in that regard.”
This story inspired by a blog post by Darren Miller.
