Years before launching BioPocrates, University of Iowa entrepreneur Dan Rehal (BSBA marketing ’92, MBA ’97) built a startup inside the Old Capitol Center (when it was a shopping mall). The college student was equipped with a new computer and inspired by a coding class he recently completed.

Working with University of Iowa statistics professor Bill Burns, Rehal created The Gift Wizard, an interactive kiosk that helped shoppers find gift ideas based on age, interests, sex, and budget. Rehal did the coding and hired the employees.

“It was wildly successful,” Rehal said. “[The Old Capital Center] advertised it on the radio, people were coming in to get ideas for their boyfriends or girlfriends.”

It was so successful that the mall owner wanted to put The Gift Wizard in 143 more malls.

Nearly 40 years later, Rehal is still building companies. In 2023, he founded BioPocrates after searching for ways to help his son, Luke, who suffered from recurring upper respiratory infections. Combining his background in pharmacy and biopharmaceuticals with his family's tradition of making fermented labneh, Rehal spent years researching the microbiome and developing a probiotic yogurt formula. What began as a personal effort to improve his family's health became BioPocrates and its signature product, Zoguri, a yogurt-based probiotic supplement designed to support gut health.

“I was a kid with nothing,” Rehal said. “My professor told me I was an entrepreneur and to learn from the best companies in the world, because some day I would have an opportunity to start my own business.”

After graduating from the University of Iowa in 1992, Rehal spent more than 16 years in healthcare, specifically in pharmaceuticals and medical marketing with major companies like Merck and Takeda. His career took him to Cedar Rapids, the Quad-Cities, Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York City, with travels to Europe, Asia, and Africa. After a move back to Chicago with Takeda, Rehal reflected on his professional journey.

“This is where I wanted to be and this is what I wanted to do,” he said. “It took me a long time to get to that level.”

Then, Rehal said, life happened.

He moved back to Omaha for family and personal reasons where Rehal converted uncertainty into opportunity. After 2 ½ years of heading Takeda’s professional marketing of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases from Omaha—including exhausting weekly flights to the Chicago office—he made a change. That change was the creation of Vision2Voice, a medical education agency that works on behalf of pharmaceutical companies.

What began as a career pivot eventually grew into a company that helps pharmaceutical and healthcare organizations share medical information with doctors and other healthcare professionals.

“It has become an extremely beautiful business,” Rehal said. “We are A+ rated by the Better Business Bureau and the only agency to not only have won one torch award for ethics by the Better Business Bureau, but we have won five.”

To understand how Rehal arrived at BioPocrates, it helps to go back to the beginning. His career has taken plenty of turns, much like the journeys of many entrepreneurs. But his first major decision was straightforward: attend the University of Iowa, where his father, Bob, earned a degree from the College of Pharmacy.

“It was in the blood to be honest with you,” Rehal said. “I’m a Hawkeye.”

Rehal wasn’t done emulating his father. For his first three years at Iowa, he was on track to become a pharmacist. That changed during a Washington, D.C., internship, where he worked on healthcare legislation and met industry leaders who convinced him after a rough semester that combining science and business would open more doors. Because of that advice, Rehal shifted his academic focus and graduated with chemistry and business degrees, setting the stage for a career in the pharmaceutical industry.

The job took him to communities across Iowa, where he called on urologists and built relationships with physicians throughout the state.

"When you’re in your 20s, you’re on fire trying to do your job and I loved it at the time,” Rehal said. “It got me back to Sioux City a lot to see my family.”

Rehal hasn’t forgotten his college roots, either. He served on the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center Advisory Board for many years, and an area in the Bedell Entrepreneurship Learning Laboratory is named the Rehal Classroom because of his philanthropic gesture. His son, Sam, just graduated from the University of Iowa in biomedical engineering with a certificate from Iowa JPEC; his son, Luke, is healthy as ever and is a freshman in high school.

Nearly four decades after creating The Gift Wizard as a college student, Rehal's entrepreneurial journey continues. Through his companies, philanthropy, and support of future entrepreneurs, Rehal proves that success isn't measured solely by the businesses you build, but by the opportunities you create for others.