Community

In addition to my responsibilities at Bio::Neos, I teach a course at the Kirkwood Regional Center of Johnson County, on the University of Iowa campus. The course is provided by the Jacobson Institute for youth entrepreneurship, an organization that creates and empowers the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs. I enjoy the opportunity to pass on my knowledge.

I'm excited to share that I recently completed Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program. I was one of 36 small business owners that were part of the second class from Iowa to participate. It was a diverse group with businesses across multiple sectors including, IT, cosmetics, animal care, and more.

(Read more for all the updates)

On the weekend of July 12th I attended Startup Weekend IC, a startup competition held at Merge. The event had three stages. In the first stage, participants pitched their ideas to the crowd and attempted to win a popular vote for their ideas. The six most popular pitches were chosen to continue into the second round. I pitched an idea for self-assembling furniture, but sensing the idea was overly ambitious, was happy it did not go on to the second round.

Community involvement has always been important to us. We embrace as many chances to share our experience as we can. One of these chances came in the form of a great local event that has been a huge catalyst for action in the Eastern Iowa community of entrepreneurs: EntreFEST 2019. As soon as we heard there was a new technology track added to the 2019 event, Mike Smith and I applied to be speakers.

As of January this year, we have now surpassed 15 years in business! While I am extremely proud of all of the projects that we have completed, scientists that we have helped to advance their research through custom software, and connections and involvement that we have built in our local community: this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Even though it's 9 months away it's never too early to start thinking about Computer Science Education Week!

I have an exciting announcement to note, although some of you have already seen a preview through an awkwardly-worded, auto-generated LinkedIn post that made it sound like I had suddenly moved on to a new job. Keep reading and I will explain in more detail:

We at Bio::Neos like to be involved with events that can promote computer science education within our local community and statewide. That's why I get so excited every year leading up to Computer Science Education Week.

As 2018 draws to a close, we at Bio::Neos would like to send our warmest wishes to everyone for happiness and success in 2019!

Meeting students and helping them explore possible STEM careers is something that we at Bio::Neos believe is important both for their future, and the local community. Plus, I find it really enjoyable to interact with these inquisitive young students! In the last two weeks, I had two opportunities to engage with students wanting to learn more about different career paths...