Roger came to technology the long way — through the pub trade. He spent over 15 years working in hospitality across Ireland and Australia, owning and operating venues before moving into operational leadership roles across the sector. Those years on the floor gave Roger an operator’s instinct for what actually matters when running a busy venue — and a healthy scepticism for technology that looks good in a demo but creates work in practice.

In 2011, he made the move into fintech, founding Invitbox, an accounts payable automation platform for hospitality that was acquired by Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) in 2014. That experience — building something useful enough that a global company wanted it — was a formative one.

Roger then co-founded Lightyear, picking up where Invitbox left off and taking AP automation further — broader in scope, and built to serve businesses across multiple sectors. In 2024, Lightyear was acquired by The Access Group, one of the largest privately owned software providers in the UK, where Roger continues to work today.

Roger’s perspective is shaped by having sat on both sides of the operator–technology relationship — as someone who has run venues, built products, and navigated two acquisitions. He’s interested in what genuinely helps businesses operate better, and equally interested in what gets in the way.