Industrial Designer to MedTech Founder: How a Weekend Project Became a investors-Backed Startup with ShanShan Wang

What if you saw a path to a life saving device?

Would you have the courage to turn it into a company—and convince others to come with you?

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

If you’re wondering whether there are more impactful things you could be doing with your STEM skill set, this episode is your masterclass in spotting sizeable, solvable, yet overlooked problems—the perfect intersection for maximum impact.

• Learn what industrial design really is—and how its problem-solving mindset applies to building MedTech devices that actually get used.

• Understand why you don’t have to personally experience a problem to solve it—and how empathy and observation can be the gateway to innovation.

• Discover how to find your “patchwork” by combining corporate experience, technical design, and purpose—and how that patchwork became foundational to ShanShan’s leadership.

• See how to move from “Could I really build this?” to “Here’s how we’ll do it”—with practical strategies for forming your founding team, pitching your first investor, and making your vision contagious.

Action:

Press play to learn how to break through in a space with little innovation, conquer a complex value chain to build a better future—and what you can build when you back your own vision.

🧠 About the Guest:

ShanShan Wang is the CEO and co-founder of Roam Technologies, a medtech startup developing a tankless, portable oxygen device designed to replace bulky cylinders and improve patient mobility. Originally trained as an industrial designer, she applied her skills to a pressing problem she couldn’t ignore—and turned her thesis into a patented, clinically validated device backed by investor capital.

📌 Episode Highlights:

00:00 – From design school to a life-changing observation

03:00 – Why innovation is so rare in oxygen therapy

06:22 – Engineering a simple solution to a complex, systemic problem

10:10 – What patients need vs. what the system rewards

15:00 – The chemistry, process, and real-time tech behind Roam

18:00 – The role of design in translating complex needs into usable products

21:00 – How corporate life became a testbed for entrepreneurship

25:00 – Turning a side project into a company—with no Plan B

30:00 – Getting people to believe: mentors, investors, and the first yes

38:00 – Pitching without a product: what investors really want to see

45:00 – The secret to rallying a team with no money—just mission

52:00 – What underrated STEM skills matter most in startups

58:00 – From control freak to visionary founder: embracing growth and risk

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• Roam Technologies: https://www.roamtech.ai/
• NSW Commercialisation Training Program
• ANSTO Innovation Hub
• MedTech Actuator
• Medical Device Fund – NSW Health
• 
  

🤔 Reflection Time:

1. What’s a problem you’ve seen that you can no longer unsee?
2. What existing skills are you underestimating because they don’t “sound” entrepreneurial?
3. Who can you ask your next question?

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn 

 

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